The FIDO Alliance along with underwriters Axiad, HID, and Thales released its State of Passkey Deployment
in the Enterprise report, finding that 87% of surveyed companies have, or are
in the midst of, rolling out passkeys with goals tied to improved user
experience, enhanced security, and compliance.
The report is the
result of an independent survey commissioned in September 2024 by the FIDO
Alliance Enterprise Deployment Working Group, with underwriting support from
Axiad, HID, and Thales, to understand the state of passkey deployments in the
U.S. and UK; the methods used to deploy passkeys and enroll employees; and the
perceived barriers to deployment. Read the report at https://fidoalliance.org/research-state-of-passkey-deployment-in-the-enterprise-a-snapshot-of-deployments-employee-sign-ins-us-uk.
The survey
revealed four key findings:
- Enterprises understand the
value of passkeys for workforce sign-ins. A majority of decision makers
(87%) report deploying passkeys at their companies. Of these, 47% report
rolling out a mix of device-bound passkeys (on physical security keys
and/or cards) and synced passkeys (synced securely across the user’s
devices). - Organizations are prioritizing
passkey rollouts to users with access to sensitive data and applications,
including the three most commonly cited priority groups: Those requiring
access to IP (39%), users with admin accounts (39%) and users at the
executive level (34%). Within these deployments, organizations are
leveraging communication, training, and documentation to increase
adoption. - Passkey deployments are linked
to significant security and business benefits. Respondents report moderate
to strong positive impacts on user experience (82%), security (90%),
help-center call reduction (77%), productivity (73%), and digital
transformation goals (83%). - Groups that do not have active
passkey projects cite complexity (43%), costs (33%), and lack of clarity
(29%) about implementation as reasons. This signals a need for increased
education for enterprises on rollout strategies to reduce concerns, as
there is a correlation between these perceived challenges and the proven
benefits of passkeys.
“This study is
equally encouraging and illuminating as it points to strong willingness and
commitment to deploy passkeys to employees – and also is informative in helping
FIDO shape resources that we can deliver to help enterprises around the world
more quickly and effectively implement their FIDO authentication strategies,”
said Andrew Shikiar, CEO and executive director of the
FIDO Alliance. “Passkeys can stop AI-generated social engineering attacks in
their tracks while also increasing employee productivity and reducing costs
associated with help desk support and security breaches. FIDO Alliance is
committed to helping more companies around the world realize these benefits by
providing actionable passkey implementation guidance and best practices, which
this data will help define.”
New phishing and
fraud attempts are being used every day, driven in particular by widespread
generative AI use. As reflected in the report, enterprise leaders are becoming
aware of the limitations of compromisable passwords, and seeing the value of
deploying the most secure and user-friendly authentication methods possible.
These insights will be leveraged to further remove the perceived and/or real
barriers around passkey adoption so more enterprises can experience their
benefits on a global scale.
