Lawrence Ng
Sep 16, 20212 min
If you find remembering passwords a bit of a hassle, then you might be relieved to hear that you can now remove the password from your Microsoft account. Instead of typing your password, you can access your account by using the Microsoft Authenticator App, Windows Hello, a security key or a verification code sent to your phone or email address. This feature will go live in the coming weeks.
Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Security, Compliance & Identity, explained that the company made such a change considering the inconvenience and security vulnerabilities passwords bring to users.
"Nobody likes passwords. They're inconvenient. They're a prime target for attacks. Yet for years they've been the most important layer of security for everything in our digital lives—from email to bank accounts, shopping carts to video games," wrote Jakkal in a blog post.
This was announced months after Microsoft made passwordless authentication generally available to commercial users.
Jakkal acknowledged that 579 password attacks occur every second or 18 billion annually, with weak passwords allowing for most of the attacks to happen. In most cases, users either create a secure password and end up forgetting it or set a memorable password that is not secure enough.
If you want to remove the password from your Microsoft account, you need the Microsoft Authenticator app installed on your phone and linked to your personal Microsoft account. After that, you can go to account.microsoft.com, sign in and select "Advanced Security Options". Under that section, you can enable the "Passwordless Account" option. All that's left to do is follow the instructions given to you and approve the notification from your Authenticator app.
You can also add your password back to your account. But once you go passwordless, you might never want to go back.
Jakkal said that almost all Microsoft employees have removed their passwords from their corporate accounts.
Written by Sophia Lopez