The FIDO Alliance takes its first step towards killing the password

The FIDO Alliance is a consortium of companies from the information technology, internet, and financial services industries, whose members range from Google to Samsung, that’s seeking to change the nature of online authentication by working together to “develop specifications that define an open, scalable, interoperable set of protocols and mechanisms,” according to Computer Weekly.

Google unveiled a surprising new way for users to log into Chrome and Gmail back in October: a USB key. The Verge notes that, while it only stood in for an authentication code as part of a two-factor setup, it showed the world that there’re more ways to login to your accounts than the antiquated username-and-password method. The dawn of the password-free era is actually much closer than you think.

Now the technology that was used in Google’s USB key is taking a massive leap forward, as the FIDO Alliance has released the 1.0 version of its open standard. Unlike previous versions, such as Google’s USB key, this one is infinitely more efficient and stable. The updated system provides an open source platform for security, not to mention cryptographic authentication for anyone using their standard.

“Today, we celebrate an achievement that will define the point at which the old world order of passwords and PINs started to wither and die,” said Michael Barrett, president of the FIDO Alliance, as quoted by Planet Biometrics. “FIDO Alliance pioneers can forever lay claim to ushering in the ‘post password’ era, which is already revealing new dimensions in Internet services and digital commerce.”

Agnitio, Infineon, Lenovo, Nok Nok Labs, PayPal, and Validity were the six founders members of the FIDO Alliance when it was formed back in February 2013. Numerous companies have joined the consortium since then, including technology giants like Google, Samsung, and Microsoft. The fact that an organization that’s not even two years old has been able to grow this much is incredibly impressive.

“The fact that the FIDO Alliance was able to develop complete specifications so quickly and with such broad support is evidence that they are tackling a pervasive industry pain point,” said Steve Wilson, Vice President and Principal Consultant at Constellation Research, as quoted by Tom’s Hardware. “No consortium in the identity management industry has every grown so fast, with such strong representation from the technology buy side.”