Most of us know there’s no such thing as having too much security on the web. If you’ve been a victim of identity theft or hacking, you likely vouch for taking extra precautionary measures, liketwo-factor authentication(2FA). However, it can become daunting to keep track of passwords and codes. As of late,password manager providershave been offering passkeys as a way to bolster security and streamline the login process. Following suit, Bitwarden has announced that it will now be doing the same for all of its users, including those with a free account.
Earlier this week,Bitwarden confirmedthat it will be rolling out advanced passkey 2FA support to all of its users, claiming that it is now the only password manager to offer such services for free. The part that makes it advanced is that anyone can leverage its FIDO2 WebAuthn authentication feature for an added layer of protection. Device-bound passkeys through features like Windows Hello will also be supported by Bitwarden.
The move is welcomed by existing Bitwarden free-tier users, who hadpasskey support since earlier this year, but without FIDO2 authentication. The company followed the lead of its competitors, such as Google, 1Password, and Keeper, which have been introducing passkeys to their users as well throughout the year. When Bitwarden noted it was working on the feature, however, it was unclear if free users would be excluded from access. In its announcement this week, the company claimed it had already received positive feedback on Reddit for making it applicable to all users.
The password manager realm has notably become crowded in recent years. Gone are the days when LastPass was the only option (certainly after itsmassive data breach), and with companies like Bitwarden offering more for less, the competition is heating up. Google has made moves to leap to the front of the pack over the past few months. Earlier this year,it put its password manager front and centerin the Chrome browser, and autofill became more prominent and easily accessible to users looking to quickly log in to sites. With a Google account, it is now easy to sync and store passkeys across Android devices as well.
