Do not use your passwordVCG via Getty ImagesAll change for Microsoft. The company has suddenly confirmed a major update for over 1 billion end users, as the deletion of passwords for all users becomes real. Your Microsoft password, it warns, could be easily forgotten or guessed by an attacker, and its now time to completely remove the password from your account.The password era is ending, Microsoft warned in December. Bad actors know it, which is why theyre desperately accelerating password-related attacks while they still can. With 7,000 attacks on passwords [blocked] per second almost double from a year ago, the company is on a mission to convince a billion users to love passkeys.And this latest update is the next stage. By the end of April, most Microsoft account users will see updated sign in and sign-up user experience for web and mobile apps. This has enabled the company to rethink the default experiences for sign in, putting even greater emphasis on usability and security our new UX is optimized for a passwordless and passkey-first experience.Microsoft explains that when signing up for a new account, just entering your email address will be enough. You dont have to create a new Microsoft password All you need to do is verify the email with a one-time code, and this becomes the default credential for your new account, so you start off passwordless.Goodbye passwordMicrosoftOnce signed in, users will then create their passkey. Were also updating the Microsoft account sign in logic, so your passkey is the default sign in choice whenever possible, because passkeys are more secure and three times faster than passwords.Microsoft has been very clear as to why adding passkeys is not good enough if passwords remain on the account. Even if we get our more than one billion users to enroll and use passkeys, if a user has both a passkey and a password, and both grant access to an account, the account is still at risk for phishing.Thats why password deletion is the goal, and it becomes more critical with new AI-fueled attacks and successful 2FA compromises making weekly headlines. Our ultimate goal is to remove passwords completely and have accounts that only support phishing-resistant credentials, Microsoft says. Millions of users have deleted their passwords.Kudos to Microsoft for the clarity and simplicity of its messaging here. The adoption of passkeys is accelerating, with HYPR confirming this week that phishing-resistant authentication, led by FIDO passkeys, is projected to become the most widely deployed authentication method within two years. But theres much more still to be done.What we need now is the same password deletion clarity from all other major platform providers to ensure this shift is wholesale. Google, in contrast to Microsoft, talks about passwords remaining as a backup credential for account access. But per Microsofts warning, this leaves a vulnerability in place. This should be the year we see consistent advice on passkeys and the eradication of password and simple 2FA usage.