Businesses embrace biometrics and security keys to secure authentication: Okta

The number of individuals using security keys and biometrics has increased by a whopping 158 percent on a year-over-year basis, according to the Businesses at Work 2024 report from Okta. Overall, the 36-page report indicates that organizations are adopting higher-assurance multi-factor authentication.

The number of companies deploying security keys and biometrics for higher identity assurance increased by 25 percent. The number of Okta’s banking and financial customers using security questions as a security factor, meanwhile, decreased by 29 percent.

Among industries, the government sector shows the highest increase in adoption, at 52 percent y-o-y, while transportation and warehousing lagged the rest, at 10 percent.

Passwordless authentication with Okta’s FastPass more frequently involves biometrics for Mac users (23 percent) than Windows users (16 percent).

The total number of passwordless authentications varied somewhat by country, and the share of those authentications that involved biometrics varied from 15 percent in Japan to 26 percent in Canada.

“In the face of an evolving tech landscape, organizations are investing in the tools they need to ensure that their operations are efficient, compliant, and secure,” says Okta Workforce Identity Cloud President and Chief Development Officer Sagnik Nandy.

Okta acquired cybersecurity startup Spera Security at the close of 2023 to integrate its attack surface protection and risk reduction technologies.

Article Topics

authentication  |  biometric security key  |  biometrics  |  enterprise  |  identity assurance  |  MFA  |  Okta  |  passwordless authentication