Company
Date Published
Author
Paul Andre de Vera
Word count
5867
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

WebAuthn is an industry standard that aims to make online security easier and more straightforward for users, developers, and administrators. It eliminates the need for passwords by using public key credentials and authenticators. WebAuthn's benefits include widespread support, improved user experience, and stronger security. However, it faces challenges such as inconsistent device support, slow adoption by public and private web services, and usability issues. Despite these hurdles, WebAuthn offers significant improvements over other authentication methods like passwords and one-time passwords. It creates stronger credentials by taking human nature out of the security equation and pushes authentication to edge devices. With its simplicity, ubiquity, and security, WebAuthn is poised to revolutionize online authentication and improve online security dramatically.