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For decades, the password has been the foundation of digital security. From early mainframes to current cloud services, passwords have long served as our keys to the digital kingdom, verifying our identity, and (ideally) keeping intruders at bay. But as cyber threats evolve, and human behaviour remaining a constant thorn in the sides of cyber security and compliance employees around the world, the once-reliable password is steadily falling from grace.
In this article we will explore the historical role of password, it’s growing limitations in today’s security-conscious landscape, and the new technologies rising to replace it.
The Origins of the Password
While the concept of a password has existed since Roman times, the digital password was, in comparison, a fairly recent invention. In 1961, an MIT researcher needed a way for individual users to have private access to the terminals of his time-sharing system, and thus the password was born. Each user was given a unique identifier and a password to access their files on a shared machine, marking an early attempt at safeguarding data in a multi-user environment.
As personal computing swiftly gained traction in the 1980s and 1990s, passwords became commonplace. From email accounts to operating systems, and later online banking and e-commerce platforms, they all relied on the same basic mechanism, ‘something you know.’ The simplicity and accessibility of passwords was its main strength. No extra hardware, no complex enrollment, just a string of characters that the user needed to recall.
Unfortunately, this simplicity, as it turned out, was also its major flaw.
The Security Burden of the Modern Password
As the internet continued to grow and digital services exploded in popularity, the average user was suddenly expected to remember dozen, sometimes hundreds of unique passwords. To cope, people would reuse the same credentials across multiple platforms, would choose weak or predictable phrases (e.g. birthdays and names of family members), or stored passwords insecurely. This introduced major vulnerabilities that attackers quickly learned to exploit.
Data breaches began exposing millions of passwords at a time. Attackers developed brute-force and dictionary attacks, phishing emails tricked users into handing over their credentials willingly, and even strong password could be compromised if they were improperly stored by service providers.
Security teams responded to these threats by introducing increasingly stringent rules around passwords, such as minimum character lengths, mandatory special characters, forbidding the use of names, and enforcing regular rotation. While these measures have helped improve overall security, it only worsened the usability problem. Asking users to remember numerous different passwords was already a challenge, so introducing even stricter regulations only exacerbated the problem. Users often resulted to writing their credentials down, or storing them in easily accessible places, undermining the very security these rules were meant to enhance.
While many have turned to password managers to help solve this issue, the adoption of these is still far
Password Managers: A Useful, But Imperfect, Solution
In response to growing password fatigue and the ever-growing list of logins, password managers have emerged as a critical stopgap. These tools securely store and autofill passwords for each service, with additional features such as complex password generators, meaning that users to longer had to rely on memory. Business versions of password managers often go a step further, allowing IT teams to manage access to various credentials, share them securely, and even monitor the complexity and health of passwords across the organisation.
When implemented and used properly, password managers significantly improve password security. They prevent common mistakes such as saving credentials in plain text, and integrate with devices and browsers to encourage stronger security habits.
However, password managers are not perfect. They themselves become a single point of failure, meaning that if compromised, they could potentially expose all saved credentials. Although most managers will encrypt stored data and require multi-factor authentication to improve security, they don’t solve the main issue that plagues all passwords - that they will always be ‘something you know’.
By this we mean that a password will always be a static secret. It is something you know and type in. It doesn’t change unless you make the active decision to update it. Even the most complex passwords can be guessed, shared by accident or exposed in a data breach, and once compromised, they can provide full access, often without recourse.
Biometrics, Passkeys, and Zero Trust
As the shortcomings of passwords became more apparent, new forms of authentication began to gain traction. Biometric systems, such as fingerprint scanners, facial recognition, and even voice authentication, offered something different, identity verification based on ‘something you are’, rather than something you know.
In the same vein, multi-factor authentication (MFA) became the gold standard for adding a second layer of defence. By requiring something you have (like a smartphone or hardware token) in additional to something you know, MFA drastically reduces the risk posed by compromised passwords.
More recently, the tech industry has rallied around passkeys, a passwordless login developed by the FIDO Alliance, and backed by major players like Apple, Microsoft and Google. Passkeys are cryptographic credentials tied to your device, eliminating the need for traditional passwords altogether. They offer stronger security, are resistant to phishing, and don’t rely on the memory of the user.
This transition s part of a broader and growing movement towards ‘zero-trust’, where every access request is scrutinised and verified based on risk, not whether the correct password was entered.
Compliance in the Post-Password World
As methods of authentication evolve, so do the standards and regulations that govern digital security. Frameworks such as Cyber Essentials, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 now explicitly recommend or require the use of MFA, strong credential management, and access controls that go beyond traditional username and password models. This can even extend to physical controls such as door locks and entry systems.
This shift has tangible consequences. Businesses that fail to adopt modern authentication methods may find themselves non-compliant with industry standards, unable to pass audits or even excluded from certain contracts or partner opportunities, especially in regulated sectors that handle sensitive data, or working with government entities.
How OneClickComply Helps Businesses Modernise Authentication
As businesses work to modernise their authentication systems, a major challenge is ensuring that security best practices, such as strong password policies, access control rules, and the use of multi-factor authentication, are not just recommended, but actually implemented, enforced, and maintained over time. This is where OneClickComply provides a significant advantage.
OneClickComply automates the enforcement of key security controls, allowing businesses to configure and maintain password and access settings that align with recognised cybersecurity standards like Cyber Essentials, SOC 2, and ISO 27001. For example, the platform can detect that your Microsoft 365 environment does not enforce MFA, and can remediate this in a single click.
Importantly, these actions are not just one-off fixes. OneClickComply continuously monitors these controls, ensuring that once these compliance and security baselines are established, they remain intact. If something changes, or drifts out of compliance, the platform flags this and offers automated remediation to bring systems back to full compliance.
This automation not only improves security, but also drastically simplifies compliance. OneClickComply automatically logs any changes made within the platform, generating evidence for auditors and regulators without extra administrative work. It means that businesses don’t need to claim they are compliant, they can prove it, consistently.
Saying Goodbye to the Password
The password has served us well for decades, offering a simple way to protect access in a growing digital world. But in an age when phishing attacks and credential stuffing are commonplace, passwords alone are no longer fit for purpose.
Password managers have extended the lifespan of traditional credentials, making them more usable and secure, but even these tools can’t fix the underlying vulnerabilities of the password model. That’s why the industry is moving towards passkeys, biometrics, and access controls, solutions that are not only stronger, but also easier to use.
This change impacts cyber security and compliance in significant ways, but with the right tools in place, businesses can make this change with confidence.
