Security

Passkeys are ready; account recovery is the harder problem

Passwordless login is reaching ordinary users, but the safest sign-in method still needs a recovery experience people can understand.

Passkeys remove the shared secret that makes passwords vulnerable to phishing. For a normal sign-in, the improvement is immediate: there is nothing to type and nothing useful for an attacker to steal from a fake page.

The recovery gap

Problems begin when a user loses every enrolled device or changes platforms. Providers must balance a humane recovery path against the risk of turning support channels into a bypass.

Authentication is only as strong as the least carefully designed way back into the account.

The best systems make recovery settings visible before a crisis and explain, in plain language, which trusted devices or contacts can help.

Mara Okafor
About the writer

Mara Okafor

Security editor

A Chronicle contributor. Update this biography and portrait in the author profile.

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