RSA joins the FIDO Alliance

The FIDO Alliance has announced that RSA, the security division of EMC has joined the Alliance and been appointed to the Board of Directors.

“RSA has taken a leading role in authentication since its inception. We join the FIDO Alliance as a Board Member to continue our leadership and join other industry leaders in developing authentication that delivers choice and interoperability with privacy to meet the needs of diverse user populations,” Kayvan Alikhani, Senior Director of Technology, RSA said. “RSA’s resources and expertise in authentication will serve our customers and the FIDO community as we protect next generation access with higher levels of user convenience.”

According to the group, RSA authentication solutions currently protect more than 500 million users and 60 billion transactions annually.

“One of the market leaders in strong authentication, RSA is an important addition to the FIDO Alliance, and a respected member of the Board of Directors. We greatly value RSA’s incomparable experience and understanding of secure authentication,” Michael Barrett, President of the FIDO Alliance said. “We draw on RSA’s expertise as we move closer to delivering FIDO specifications for universal strong authentication, to a marketplace crying for relief from the damages passwords and PIN dependency have wrought for both providers and users of online and mobile sites and services.”

As we’ve reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, open FIDO specifications will support a full range of authentication technologies, including biometrics, as well as further enabling existing solutions and communications standards, such as Trusted Platform Modules, USB Security Tokens, embedded Secure Elements, Smart Cards, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Near Field Communication.

In December 2013, the FIDO Alliance announced the launch of its new FIDO Ready Certification Program.  

The FIDO Alliance has seen many new members in the last year. Recently, Discover Financial Services joined the Alliance and last week, Microsoft announced its membership.  

FIDO also recently surpassed the 50-member mark in its first eight months as an official organization.

Article Topics

FIDO Alliance  |  RSA