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Cybersecurity / Glossary

Passkey

A passkey is a password replacement: a cryptographic key stored on your device that you unlock with your fingerprint, face or PIN.

Passkeys only work on the real website or app they were created for, so a phishing page can't use them. There is also no password to leak or reuse.

Your device keeps the private part of the key. The website only stores a public part, which is useless to anyone who steals it.

Where a service offers passkeys, turning them on is one of the simplest ways to stop account takeovers.

Learn it in a 8-minute lessonPasswords & MFAlength, uniqueness, second factor