FIDO — Fast Identity Online — has received new backing from Apple, Google, and Microsoft, with all three tech companies announcing that they are expanding support for the alliance’s passwordless sign-in standard.
Apple joined the alliance in 2020, and the company has now announced its increased support for the group’s goals. In a joint statement from FIDO, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, seen by AppleInsider, the alliance aims to allow websites and apps to offer secure and simple sign-ins without using passwords.
“Just as we design our products to be intuitive and capable,” said Apple senior director of platform product marketing, Kurt Knight, in the statement, “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,” continued Knight, “all with the goal of keeping users’ personal information safe.”
FIDO says that password usage is one of the biggest security issues today, mainly how reused passwords from a single data breach on one site or service can cause issues on other sites. It also says password management can be cumbersome for consumers, and that its standard will allow for secure passwordless options.
“Users will sign in through the same action that they take multiple times each day to unlock their devices,” says the alliance, “such as a simple verification of their fingerprint or face, or a device PIN.”
Apple has proposed its own passkey feature, which it announced during WWDC 2021. The system mimics hardware security keys, but the process uses iCloud Keychain in place of physical security keys. Apple is expected to unveil new features for the passkey feature this year at WWDC 2022.
