Highlights:

  • 1Password announced the debut of a new browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Brave, and Edge that enables users to remember, save, and autofill logins with a variety of third-party providers without having to generate unique usernames and passwords.

Passwords are the weakest link in organizational security. With simple phishing or social engineering fraud, a threat actor may harvest a user’s login credentials and obtain access to their protected data. As a result, password management companies are moving toward passwordless authentication.

Recently, 1Password announced the debut of a new browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Brave, and Edge that enables users to remember, save, and autofill logins with various third-party providers without the need of generating unique usernames and passwords.

The extension supports third-party providers like Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Microsoft, Okta, and GitHub.

Since hybrid work has blurred the barriers between employees’ personal and professional lives, the new extension will allow employees a potential solution to safeguard their online accounts against compromise.

Stopping credential theft for good

The announcement coincides with a continuing spike in credential theft. According to a survey by Digital Shadows, there are 24 billion stolen usernames and passwords on the dark web.

With such a large quantity of exposed credentials on the dark web, it is evident that passwords are easily exploitable and ineffectual at keeping out unwanted users, prompting technology companies and the FIDO alliance to demand passwordless authentication solutions.

As part of this initiative, LastPass is utilizing the browser extension to provide users with enhanced security against account takeover attempts aimed at work and personal applications.

Steve Won, chief product officer at 1Password, said, “The new browser extension feature that we launched today supports enterprises’ needs to manage Shadow IT, securing access to the apps and websites that fall outside the IT teams’ purview, on behalf of users and the organizations they work for. Our new browser extension helps users remove that guesswork by letting 1Password remember which third-party provider they used to sign in with and to get them to where they’re going more quickly.”

The extension will reduce the danger of credential theft by allowing users to sign in without a password and streamlining the sign-in process.

The market of passwordless authentication

According to research, the market for passwordless authentication, including 1Password’s product, is expected to increase from USD 6.6 billion in 2022 to USD 21.2 billion by 2027.

One of the company’s key rivals in the market is LastPass, a password manager that allows customers to log in using the LastPass Authenticator without requiring a password.

After acquiring the firm from Francisco Partners and Elliot Management’s private equity arm for $4.3 billion in October 2015 for $110 million, LogMeIn spun out LastPass in 2021.

One of the company’s key rivals in the market is LastPass, a password manager that allows customers to log in using the LastPass Authenticator without requiring a password.

In October 2015, LogMeIn bought LastPass for USD 110 million. After Elliot Management’s private equity arm and Franceso Partners bought the company for USD 4.3 billion in 2021, LastPass was spun out.

Bitwarden, an open-source password manager that allows users to save passwords and protects data with AES-256 bit encryption, salted hashing, and PBKDF2 SHA-256, is another rival. Bitwarden revealed lately that it had secured USD 100 million in investment headed by PSG.

According to Won, the primary distinction between 1Password and its competitors is its human-centric and zero-knowledge security approach.

Steve Won said, “Information about our security architecture and relevant company processes are openly documented, and we employ a zero-knowledge security model, meaning we cannot access private data stored in customers’ vaults.”