“And most users use the same password for everything, and because of that they will then try and use that password to get into your banking accounts, your brokerage accounts, and all of those kinds of things,” he said.

Todd McKinnon is chief executive and co-founder of Okta, a publicly traded US identity software firm worth about $US14 billion ($22 billion).

For McKinnon, passwords are “no one’s ideal method”. Passkeys represent a far superior option for both businesses and consumers, he said, despite having their own pitfalls given the technology is still in its relative infancy.

“Passkeys are exciting,” McKinnon told this masthead. “I think the adoption is still relatively early, and everyone knew that the hard part would be cross-machine compatibility.

“The thing [with] passkeys is that you can replace the actual password but the real test of it is when you have to get a password for a credential that’s forgotten, and how do you restore that, and how do you respond? How does the helpdesk respond when you have to reset it,” he said.

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Like all big businesses around the world, NAB has substantially increased its technology spend to thwart cybersecurity attacks, of which it receives more than 50 million a month, Bucchianeri said.

While cybercriminals have not penetrated NAB’s digital systems, Bucchianeri said they have been attacking smaller, less secure, businesses that provide services to large organisations, such as the bank, to get their hands on critical data and people’s personal information.

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