Google brings support for passkeys to its Advanced Protection program ahead of the US presidential election

As the US presidential election approaches, Google is bringing passkey support to its Advanced Protection Program (APP), which is used by people at high risk of targeted attacks, such as security guards. campaign, candidates, journalists, human rights defenders, etc. .

The APP traditionally required the use of hardware security keys, but soon users will be able to register for the APP with access keys. Users will have the option to use access keys alone, or with a password or hardware security key.

“During a critical election year, we will bring this functionality to our users who need it most and continue to work with experts such as Defending Digital Campaigns, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, Asia Centre, Internews and Possible to help protect high-risk global users,” Heather Adkins, Google’s vice president of security engineering, said in a blog post.

Google says passkeys have been used to authenticate users more than a billion times across more than 400 million Google accounts since the company launched support for passkeys in 2022. Google says that passkeys are used more often on Google accounts than older forms of two-step verification, such as SMS one-time passwords and app-based one-time passwords combined.

Password logins make it harder for bad actors to access your accounts remotely because they would also need physical access to a phone. Access keys also eliminate the need for username and password combinations, which can be susceptible to phishing.

The technology has been adopted by many other companies, including Apple, Amazon, X (formerly Twitter), PayPal, WhatsApp, GitHub and TikTok.

Google also announced the expansion of its Cross-Account Protection program, which shares security notifications about suspicious activity with third-party apps you have connected to your Google account. The company says this helps prevent cybercriminals from accessing one of your accounts and using it to infiltrate others. Google says it protects 2.4 billion accounts across 3.4 million apps and sites and is expanding collaborations across the industry.