Mr. Kalyan Vijay Kumar Pasumarthi

Advancing Cybersecurity Sustainability Through Passwordless Authentication

Abstract:

The increasing frequency of credential-based breaches underscores the urgent need to modernize authentication systems. Traditional password mechanisms remain the primary cause of data compromises, prolonging incident response times and elevating operational risks. This study presents a framework for advancing cybersecurity sustainability through the adoption of passwordless authentication, particularly passkeys built on the FIDO2 standard. By leveraging asymmetric cryptography, passkeys eliminate shared secrets and mitigate phishing, credential stuffing, and password reuse vulnerabilities. The paper examines the underlying technologies—WebAuthn, CTAP2, and hardware-backed security modules such as TPM, Secure Enclave, and StrongBox—and demonstrates their effectiveness in creating resilient authentication infrastructures. Additionally, the research connects passwordless adoption to sustainability outcomes, showing reduced IT support demands, lower energy consumption, and improved system reliability. A phased deployment model and adherence to NIST and FIDO guidelines are proposed to ensure scalable, secure, and user-centric implementation. The findings highlight passwordless authentication as a critical enabler of both cybersecurity resilience and long-term operational sustainability.

Profile:

Working currently at the capacity of Senior Architect in Bank of America’s Authentication and Fraud identification and prevention platform with responsibilities of providing Architectural Solution, designing, developing frameworks, coding, POCs and guidelines to expedite and enhance application engineering. Having 21+ overall experience and versed in numerous technologies to solve various complex problems. Adept at constructing software architecture suited to rapid deployment across multiple projects to reduce development times and costs.