University of Surrey & WhoisXML API: Analyzing Global Passkey Adoption
About
Researchers Prince Bhardwaj and Nishanth Sastry from the University of Surrey conducted a large-scale study measuring the real-world adoption of passkey authentication across the web.
Their research scanned 100,000 popular websites to determine how widely passwordless passkey authentication (FIDO2/WebAuthn) has been implemented. To analyze geographic and industry adoption patterns, the researchers enriched their dataset using WhoisXML API IP geolocation data.
Highlights
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IP Geolocation API from WhoisXML API enabled the researchers to determine the geographic distribution of passkey-enabled websites identified in their large-scale web scan.
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Website Categorization API allowed the team to classify domains by industry sector and analyze which industries are adopting passkey authentication.
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The enriched dataset supported global and sector-level analysis of passkey deployment across the web.
Adding Geographic and Industry Context to Web Measurement Data
After identifying websites that supported passkey authentication, the researchers needed additional context to understand where these websites were located and which industries they represented.
However, websites do not directly expose reliable geographic or industry information. Determining these attributes required external enrichment sources capable of mapping domains and IP addresses to geographic locations and industry categories.
To analyze regional and sector-level passkey adoption, the researchers therefore needed reliable APIs that could provide geolocation and website classification data at scale.
Enriching the Dataset with WhoisXML API Services
To add geographic and sector context to their dataset, the researchers incorporated WhoisXML API’s IP Geolocation API and Website Categorization API into their analysis workflow.
Their methodology included:
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Resolving domains to IP addresses using DNS queries
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Querying the WhoisXML API GeoIP service to map IP addresses to geographic locations
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Using website categorization data to identify the industry sectors of the analyzed domains
This enrichment allowed the researchers to associate passkey-enabled websites with geographic regions and industry sectors, enabling deeper analysis of adoption patterns.
Insights Enabled by WhoisXML API Data
By enriching their dataset with WhoisXML API’s IP Geolocation and Website Categorization APIs, the researchers added geographic and industry context to the websites identified in their study, enabling deeper analysis of passkey adoption.
Geographic Distribution of Passkey Deployments
Using WhoisXML API geolocation data, passkey-enabled websites were associated with specific geographic locations, allowing analysis of how deployments were distributed across different regions.
Industry Adoption Patterns
Website categorization data enabled the classification of domains by sector and helped identify which industries were adopting passkey authentication technologies.