Microsoft’s Surface Pro 10 for Business enables NFC-based passwordless authentication with YubiKeys

Microsoft has consistently been a pioneer and architect of digital innovations that raises the bar for what technology can accomplish - especially within cybersecurity. Their mission to empower every organisation to achieve more is highlighted in advancements in new products - including the recent announcement of Surface Pro 10 for Business which prioritises security and user experience.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 10 for Business is the first Surface Pro that has a built-in NFC reader - located on the top left of the screen. This new authentication flow enables quick and secure passwordless login, to the device and cloud services, such as Windows 365 or Imprivata with just a tap of the YubiKey to the device. 

With the added NFC capabilities built into the Surface Pro 10, creating phishing-resistant users in the enterprise is now easier than ever. The YubiKey can be used at Windows login to authenticate, via NFC, into a user's cloud-based Microsoft account, instantly signing in to Windows and Microsoft 365 applications -- marking a significant step towards a passwordless future.

Utilising device-bound passkeys stored on a YubiKey, users have the flexibility to access their cloud-based profiles and data from any Surface Pro 10 - a major benefit for all industries to provide the highest level of security, in addition to specific industries with shared workstation environments such as hospitality, retail, healthcare and many others.

"Our enterprise customers rely on Surface for industry leading security and seamless user experiences. The ability to quickly and securely sign-in to the device and authenticate with NFC security keys is a critical experience that we've added to Surface Pro 10. YubiKeys take full advantage of the integrated NFC reader and delivers a huge win on both fronts," said Nancie Gaskill, General Manager at Microsoft. "We are excited to work with Yubico to enable the use of YubiKeys, providing users with secure and innovative authentication options to protect against the increasing threat and volume of identity-based cyber attacks." 

Together, Microsoft and Yubico have paved the way for a passwordless, phishing-resistant future for organisations of all sizes and industries. Yubico has a long-standing collaboration with Microsoft as FIDO Alliance members and leading contributors to FIDO2/WebAuthn authentication standards. With FIDO2/WebAuthn, organisations benefit from a frictionless user experience while strengthening security with phishing-resistant, hardware-based passkey authentication in YubiKeys. Through our collaboration and mutual membership in the FIDO Alliance, Yubico and Microsoft seamlessly collaborate to guide public and private organisations toward Zero Trust principals.

Whether an organisation's environment is in the cloud or on premise with Microsoft Entra ID, YubiKeys offer a solution that accelerates the journey to passwordless authentication. The good news for Microsoft users—whether using Entra ID or Microsoft 365—is that they can seamlessly leverage native support for the YubiKey, ensuring immediate compliance with strict privacy regulations.

Designed to help organisations achieve the highest level of authentication security and usability at scale, the YubiKey natively works with Windows 11, Entra ID, Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS) and hundreds of enterprise applications and services to prevent account takeovers. The YubiKey is the only hardware security key that concurrently supports the widest variety of authentication protocols and open standards, which enhances authentication while reducing complexity and total cost of ownership. 

Right now, you can use your YubiKey with your work or personal Microsoft account, Edge browser, Entra ID, and more. Additionally, your organisation, whether public or private sector, can block any sign-in attempt that does not use CBA and ensure your users are protected by leveraging secure, phishing-resistant, multi-factor authentication solutions with a passkey. Add to this the newly announced capabilities being built into the new Surface Pro 10 and the YubiKey really becomes ubiquitous to the safe, effective, efficient user security that enterprises need and expect.

For more information on the Surface Pro 10 and the new NFC capabilities, visit Microsoft.com. To learn more about YubiKey's NFC capabilities, visit here.