Dave Lieber I was confused. Kept seeing mention of a security “key” offered on some of my favorite websites—Microsoft, Google, YouTube and Facebook, to name a few. I wasn’t sure if I should use it.

I have all but moved on from password to passkeys, where possible, as a safer alternative to typing a long string of characters. But there's a caveat: if someone gains physical access to your computer ...

A hardware security key is a physical gadget—like a USB stick—that gives you an extra layer of security through multifactor authentication (MFA). When you sign in to certain services, you’ll plug it ...