Abstract :

The Rapid Expansion Of Cloud Computing, Mobile Services, Digital Banking, Remote Work, Electronic Healthcare, E-government, Internet Of Things Ecosystems, And Distributed Enterprise Applications Has Increased The Importance Of Secure And Usable Digital Identity Management. Conventional Password-based Authentication Remains Widely Deployed But Suffers From Fundamental Weaknesses Associated With Password Reuse, Weak Password Selection, Credential Phishing, Database Breaches, Bruteforce Attacks, Credential Stuffing, Keylogging, Social Engineering, Insecure Recovery Mechanisms, And Significant User-management Burden. This Research Presents The Future Of Secure Identity: A Systematic Review Of Passwordless Authentication Methods And Challenges, Together With A Conceptual Adaptive Passwordless Identity Framework For Modern Digital Environments. The Study Reviews Major Passwordless Mechanisms Including FIDO2, WebAuthn, Public-key Credentials, Passkeys, Hardware Security Keys, Biometric Authentication, Mobile Push Authentication, Smart Cards, Onetime Possession Links, Device-bound Credentials, And Decentralized Identity Approaches. The Proposed Conceptual Framework Integrates Identity Enrollment, Authenticator Registration, Device Trust Evaluation, Cryptographic Challengeresponse, Biometric User Verification, Behavioral Context, Adaptive Risk Assessment, Credential Lifecycle Management, Recovery Governance, And Continuous Monitoring Within A Unified Layered Architecture. Unlike Conventional Passwords, Modern Public-key Passwordless Mechanisms Can Reduce Exposure To Reusable Shared Secrets By Keeping Private Cryptographic Material Under Authenticator Control While Servers Retain Corresponding Public-key Information. The Architecture Consists Of Five Interconnected Layers: User, Device And Digital Service Interaction, Identity Enrollment And Passwordless Credential Registration, Passwordless Authentication And Cryptographic Verification, Adaptive Trust, Risk Assessment And Access Decision, And Secure Applications, Governance And Continuous Monitoring. The Systematic Analysis Identifies Major Advantages Including Phishing Resistance In Appropriately Deployed Origin-bound Authentication, Reduced Password Reuse, Improved User Experience, Stronger Cryptographic Verification, And Lower Password-reset Dependency. However, Significant Challenges Remain Involving Account Recovery, Device Loss, Cross-device Interoperability, Biometric Privacy, Legacy-system Integration, Credential Synchronization, Authenticator Lifecycle Management, Accessibility, Implementation Errors, User Adoption, And Organizational Migration Complexity. Illustrative Conceptual Evaluation Indicates Improved Authentication Success, Security Precision, Legitimate-user Verification, Balanced F1-score, And Reduced Authentication Latency Compared With Traditional Passwords, SMS-based Authentication, And Conventional Password-plusOTP Mechanisms. The Study Concludes That Future Secure Identity Systems Should Combine Phishing-resistant Passwordless Authentication With Adaptive Trust Assessment, Privacy-aware Recovery, Lifecycle Governance, Interoperability, And Continuous Security Monitoring.

Published:

09-7-2026

Issue:

Vol. 26 No. 7 (2026)

Page Nos:

378-388

Section:

Articles

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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