Basically, Yahoo Account Key needs you to link your Yahoo account to your mobile device, then, when you get to the log in page, you pop in your email addy, select the Account Key function which then sends a push notification to your device, and boom, you’re in. There is a simple attack vector against the new system, given that mobile device malware is a growing problem, James said, adding that if an attacker is somehow able to compromise a phone, the Yahoo password-less system is a risk. The users have been provided with the discretion to indicate via a yes or no tab, if the attempt to log into their Yahoo Mail account is legitimate or not. Yahoo Account Key represents a leap forward from the On-Demand Passwords feature introduced last March that sends your phone a unique, one-time password for logging in.
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Dylan Casey, vice president of product management for Yahoo said Account Key is more secure than traditional passwords.
Recognising that users today have multiple email accounts across various providers, Yahoo Mail now gives customers the ability to integrate and manage their Outlook and AOL accounts from Yahoo on mobile or desktop.
Apart from this novelty, the overhauled application has included a number of new features including smarter search, contacts management and rich compose. “Consumers actually like them”, the Gartner analyst tells the Mercury News, though he concedes people often forget their passwords, create weak ones, or use the same one across many accounts, setting them up for hacking. Yahoo Account Key is one of the major additions to this app.
Starting yesterday, Yahoo Mail app users on both iOS and Android had access to a new service called Yahoo Account Key. Yahoo’s Senior Vice President Jeff Bonforte noted that while two-factor authorization is being widely employed these days, he calls it too complicated for most people. Previously, it replaced traditional passwords with single-use SMS codes and now it has fully eliminated the password process.
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Yahoo has unveiled a new yahoo mail app, to mark its 18th anniversary. If Yahoo can successfully come up with a secure approach that effectively removes the need for passwords, it will definitely be appealing to users, Kouns said.
