Microsoft joins major push to kill passwords once and for all

As passwords have become more annoying and less secure over the years, several of tech’s brightest minds have looked at one another and said, “Surely there must be a better way?” And although Google has typically been the most visible face in the crusade to kill the password, it looks like Microsoft will put more of its own resources into the effort as well. IDG News, via Network World, reports that Microsoft has joined the board of directors of the FIDO Alliance, an industry consortium founded in 2012 to reduce Internet services’ reliance on passwords. The alliance, which includes heavyweights such as Google, Lenovo and LG, is working on “standardizing authentication technologies will lead to better interoperability and innovations in biometrics, PINs (personal identification numbers) and secondary authentication technologies,” IDG News says.