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08/06/2026 4:07 pm
TL;DR: Passwords and stolen or weak credentials play a part in more than 80% of today’s breaches, according to Axiad, but fragmented passwordless rollouts can still leave enforcement gaps, inconsistent policy application, and user workarounds. The security problem is not simply replacing passwords, but building integrated authentication across all identity types and environments.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Axiad: Navigating the path to passwordless authentication
By the numbers:
- Passwords, along with stolen or weak credentials, play a part in more than 80% of today’s breaches.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should organisations implement passwordless authentication without creating new security gaps?
A: They should treat passwordless as an enterprise governance change, not a local login upgrade.
Q: Why do fragmented passwordless deployments still leave organisations exposed?
A: Fragmentation creates uneven policy application, duplicated administration, and blind spots between tools.
Q: How can security teams tell whether passwordless is actually working?
A: Look for consistent enforcement, reduced exception handling, and a clear view of all authenticators across the environment.
Practitioner guidance
- Assess passwordless coverage by identity type Inventory where passwordless applies to users, machines, privileged accounts, and hybrid workflows.
- Consolidate policy enforcement across authentication tools Require one policy standard for enrollment, step-up, and control exceptions across the stack.
- Measure visibility before claiming maturity Track whether the team can see all authenticators, all major access paths, and all identity types from a single governance view.
What's in the full article
Axiad's full blog covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- The article’s step-by-step framing for moving from fragmented authentication to a holistic enterprise model
- The five design factors Axiad lists for enterprise-wide passwordless orchestration
- The article’s discussion of how integration, automation, and visibility change admin workload and user experience
- The specific examples of hybrid identity environments and authentication use cases the post only summarizes
👉 Read Axiad's analysis of the path to enterprise-wide passwordless authentication →
Passwordless authentication silos: what IAM teams miss?
Explore further
08/06/2026 5:34 pm
Fragmented passwordless is an identity governance failure, not just an architecture choice. When authentication is split across multiple tools and operating models, policy stops being enforceable as a single standard. That creates inconsistent assurance across user and machine identities, which is exactly where attackers look for the weakest path. For practitioners, the relevant conclusion is that passwordless must be governed as a programme, not a series of local optimisations.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 96% of organisations store secrets outside of secrets managers in vulnerable locations including code, config files, and CI/CD tools, according to Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
- Only 5.7% of organisations have full visibility into their service accounts, according to the Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
A question worth separating out:
Q: What is the relationship between passwordless authentication and zero trust?
A: Passwordless can support zero trust only when it improves continuous verification across the full identity estate. If it is implemented in silos, it may remove passwords without improving assurance. Zero trust requires governance, visibility, and control consistency, not just a different login method.
👉 Read our full editorial: Passwordless authentication fails when it is deployed in silos
