On World Password Day, Apple, Google and Microsoft very fittingly announced a major step towards eliminating passwords from our lives. The standard, established by the Fido Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium, has already existed for some years, and is supported in billions of devices and in all modern web browsers. Apple, Google and Microsoft have spearheaded the development of this extended feature set and are now building support into their respective platforms.
The platforms of these companies already support Fido Alliance standards for allowing passwordless access, but previous implementations require users to log into every website or app with every device before they can use the passwordless feature. Today’s announcement extends these platform implementations to give users two new features:
- Allowing them to automatically access their Fido login credentials on many of their devices, even new ones, without having to re-enroll each account.
- Allow them to use Fido authentication on their mobile device to access an app or website on a nearby device, regardless of the platform or browser used.
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In addition to facilitating a better user experience, this standards-based approach will allow service providers to offer credit credentials without the need for a password as an alternative method of logging in or recovering the account.
These new features are expected to become available on Apple, Google and Microsoft platforms over the next year.
“Working with the industry to establish new and more secure login methods that offer better protection and eliminate password vulnerabilities is critical to our commitment to building products that offer maximum security and a transparent user experience, with the goal of keeping users’ personal information safe, ”said Kurt Knight, Apple’s Senior Director of Platform Product Marketing.
“This milestone is a testament to the collaborative work being done across the industry to increase security and eliminate outdated password-based authentication,” said Mark Risher, Google’s Senior Director of Product Management. “We look forward to making Fido-based technology available on Chrome, ChromeOS, Android and other platforms, and we encourage app and website developers to adopt it so that people around the world can avoid the risk and the hassle of passwords “.
“The complete transition to a passwordless world will begin with consumers making it a natural part of their lives,” said Alex Simons, corporate vice president, Identity Program Management at Microsoft. “By working together, we can finally achieve this vision and move towards password elimination. We see a bright future for Fido-based credentials in both consumer and enterprise scenarios and will continue to build support through Microsoft apps and services.”
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