On World Password Day, Google celebrates by telling you how it’s going to kill the password

Yesterday was officially World Password Day – a day in which everyone celebrates how passwords have kept us safe by cross-checking their own personal security and strengthening their own passwords so that their data remains safe and sound. In fact, last year, the search query “How strong is my password” was up 300%, according to a new Keyword blog article. Well, Google is celebrating passwords by telling us how they intend to create a future where passwords will no longer need to exist, and I can’t say I’m complaining about the irony here.

I’ve always dreamt of a future where biometrics would take over the annoying and slow process of manually typing an alphanumeric password in on every single text box that holds important life information for my life behind it. I don’t know enough about the advancements we’ve made, but I feel as though we’re not quite there yet, and we could be moving much faster. Well, Google’s two-step verification process has made some of the largest leaps and bounds in this area, in my humble opinion, and using a secondary device to simply tap and authenticate your identity is pretty streamlined.

Now, the company will be automatically enabling 2SV (2-Step Verification) for all Google accounts, provided there is a mobile device linked to it. While you can already perform the occasional security checkup (and you should!) to check for compromised, reused, or weak passwords, this power move means that there will automatically be fewer security breaches as a result of these common issues – I’d say that’s something to celebrate about!

So, not only will you be able to log into your Google account with one tap from your phone, but no one else will be able to access your information without first knowing your password and having physical access to your phone while it’s unlocked. If you’re not interested in linking a phone to your account whatsoever, then you can pretty much just disregard this entirely and go perform the security checkup to give yourself peace of mind! I think the best way to celebrate is to kill the password entirely, but I know there will be those who disagree. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.