As a joint effort, Apple has partnered with Google and Microsoft to expand support for the FIDO standard to boost the availability of passwordless sign-ins for consumers across leading devices and platforms.
FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium created a common passwordless sign-in standard that will allow apps and websites to offer easy, secure, and consistent passwordless sign-ins.
Built as an improved version of two-factor authentication, the new “passwordless sign-ins” capability is developed with industry-wide collaboration to offer consumers “more convenient and more secure” authentication technology. In addition, it will also curtail the insecurities of password-only authentication and the hassle to remember multiple passwords across services.
New “passwordless sign-ins” technology will be available by 2023 on Apple, Google, and Microsoft platforms
As per the announcement, Apple, Google, and Microsoft are working to implement support for the FIDO standard “passwordless sign-in” capability developed by the hundreds of companies and service providers within FIDO Alliance and W3C in their respective platforms by 2023.
Although the FIDO standard is available on billions of devices worldwide, the new improvements make it more seamless and secure.
- Users will be able to automatically access their FIDO sign-in credentials (login information) on devices without enrolling in every account.
- FIDO authentication will be used to sign in to an app or website on their mobile device across operating systems or browsers.
Users will be able to conveniently use the same action to sign-in web accounts or apps like unlocking their mobile device through a finger/face scan, or PIN which will protect them from phishing. Kurt Knight, Apple’s Senior Director of Platform Product Marketing said that;
“Just as we design our products to be intuitive and capable, we also design them to be private and secure. Working with the industry to establish new, more secure sign-in methods that offer better protection and eliminate the vulnerabilities of passwords is central to our commitment to building products that offer maximum security and a transparent user experience — all with the goal of keeping users’ personal information safe.”
Jen Easterly, Director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that;
“The standards developed by the FIDO Alliance and World Wide Web Consortium and being led in practice by these innovative companies is the type of forward-leaning thinking that will ultimately keep the American people safer online. I applaud the commitment of our private sector partners to open standards that add flexibility for the service providers and a better user experience for customers.
At CISA, we are working to raise the cybersecurity baseline for all Americans. Today is an important milestone in the security journey to encourage built-in security best practices and help us move beyond passwords. Cyber is a team sport, and we’re pleased to continue our collaboration.”
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