Leave passwords in the past – passkeys are the future!

Good morning Resident,

You are receiving this message because you expressed a concern about cyber crime and/or fraud on a Lancashire Talking survey, and so we believe this message will be helpful to you. 

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ Cheltenham, recently took a significant step forward by recommending passkeys as the default login method wherever they’re available. After decades of relying on passwords, the NCSC now advises that traditional passwords simply aren’t resilient enough against modern cyber threats. Passkeys, by contrast, offer a more secure, more user‑friendly alternative, requiring user approval rather than password entry – making them faster, simpler and far harder for criminals to compromise.

New findings show that passkeys are at least as secure as, and often more secure than, strong passwords combined with two‑step verification. With most cyber harm beginning with stolen login details, widespread adoption of passkeys represents a major leap forward in protecting individuals and services from phishing attacks.

The UK is already leading the way, with over 50% of active Google users having a passkey registered, alongside support from providers such as Google, eBay and PayPal.

As cyber resilience becomes everyone’s responsibility, yes, this means YOU!! Moving to passkeys is a practical step we can all take to improve security and reduce password fatigue — without sacrificing usability.

✅ Easier to use
✅ Harder to compromise
✅ Less reliance on passwords
✅ Cost‑effective for service providers

Not every platform has allowed Passkeys to be used yet, more are developing this tech. So, you can search on Google to find who are and who are not. It’s worth keeping an eye on this and when the platforms you use make the change to accepting Passkeys you make the change! 

Where passkeys aren’t yet available the NCSC continues to recommend:

A safer, simpler digital future is already here — it’s time to adopt it !!

So lets have a look at a few platforms that have adopted it and also what you can do..…

Major Consumer Platforms (Accounts)

They all use passkeys and as these are major and significant platforms in most of our cyber lives then this would be a good starting point in your passkey change over.

What about social media?

The list of UK social media and their position on having Passkeys is listed below.

How can I make these changes?

We tend to find that the platforms change where they put the settings on a far too regular basis. So please check either the NCSC website or even ‘Google it’ and you will find out how to make those changes.

Before you do can you just need to make sure your devices are able to adopt this change.

Before You Start (Applies to All Platforms)

Make sure you have:

For more information from NCSC, please use the following link: Passkeys: what you need to know | National Cyber Security Centre