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CYBERSECURITY
The Passkey Paradox: Why One Size Does Not Fit All
How to match passkey types to identity risk levels and avoid common enterprise deployment mistakes
TL;DR: Never share a device-bound passkey with another person. High-privilege identities should always use device-bound passkeys to prevent cloud syncing, while synced passkeys are a deliberate usability trade-off that is perfectly fine for everyday, lower-risk accounts but never for critical ones.
A passkey is a passwordless authentication credential based on the FIDO2/WebAuthn standard (built on public-key cryptography) designed to replace passwords by eliminating shared secrets that can be phished or stolen. It consists of:
- A private key that stays securely on the user’s device and never leaves it.
- A public key that is stored on the server.
The authentication happens via a cryptographic challenge-response often verified by biometrics or with a PIN.
Why Passkeys Exist
They make strong authentication as easy as typing a password by solving three critical problems with passwords:
- Phishing resistance because there is no password to trick users into entering.
