Dashlane, digital wallet and password manager startup based in New York, announced on Thursday that it has joined hands with Google to develop a technique to fix the vulnerabilities of password management. The tech firms have jointly come up with OpenYOLO– You Only Login Once (not the synonym of Carpe Diem)– an open-source API project for app developers that allows them access passwords stored in password managers.
This isn’t the first a tech firm has tried its hands to try and fix the problems and loopholes with password management. In fact, Google has itself done quite a lot in this domain. The web giant had previously announced Project Abacus, a bunch of tools that use stuff like biometrics to identify you. The company also launched the password manager it likes to call Smart Lock that can be used to sign into apps on Android.
Google is excited to support the launch of this project with Dashlane and help create a new open standard for app authentication,
said Google’s Iain McGinniss in a statement.
This project is part of our longstanding support of open technology standards that provide great, secure user experience to end users.
OpenYOLO, the developers said will initially be targeted specifically for Android devices. Multi-platform support is expected to come soon, too. The companies said that they will be working with other leading password managers to enhance the user experience. According to Dashlane, there has already been a lot of input from leading password managers like 1Password, LastPass, Keeper and Keepass.
Security breaches related to password issues are the most common and dangerous threats. OpenYOLO aims to centralise password management and thus prevent any unwanted hacks. The duo also announced that Google’s Smart Lock will be integrated into OpenYOLO making it easier for apps to tap whatever password manager you use.
To make things simple to understand, let’s take an example. In case you have Smart Lock installed on your phone, once you reach a login screen, credentials will be passed directly from Smart Lock. If any alternate password manager is being used, this does not happen and the user will have to enter the credentials manually.
With the Open YOLO API, the user will still see the Smartlock credential as before, but the app would be able to query other sources of credentials, such as Dashlane, another password manager, or even another browser, if it contains a credential for the app,
Stanojko Markovikjm, Android Engineering Lead at Dashlane told TechCrunch.
