Google, Microsoft, and Infineon reveal FIDO2 implementations at RSA

Microsoft and Google security team leaders will present the new authentication options available in their browsers and other core products based on the FIDO2 and W3C standards at RSA Conference 2018 on Friday, April 20. The session, titled “Google and Microsoft Debut: Replacing Passwords with FIDO2 Authentication,” will also explain the new standards and the FIDO ecosystem, and cover how a superior user experience and stronger authentication can be provided without passwords.

The session will be moderated by FIDO Alliance Executive Director Brett McDowell, with panelists from Microsoft and Google.

The WebAuthn specification of FIDO2 was recently accepted as a Candidate Recommendation (CR) by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to define a way for browsers to enable websites to provide users with FIDO authentication. Along with Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox has also begun implementing WebAuthn.

Nok Nok Labs CEO and President Phillip Dunkelberger recently compared the new standard to SSL in an interview with Biometric Update.

Infineon Technologies is also demonstrating its FIDO2 reference design for an authentication token for logging on to an Azure Active Directory joined device at RSA Conference 2018.

The design is based on the SLE 78 chip, and integrates a USB and NFC interface on a single chip for use in both USB and USB/NFC token designs. The chip’s security controller features Infineon Integrity Guard, which includes data protection mechanisms, error detection, and countermeasures against chip-level attacks, according to the announcement.

“Windows Hello is paving the way towards a password-less future, and today we are pleased to introduce Windows Hello security keys,” said Dave Bossio, Group Program Manager at Microsoft. “Our collaboration with Infineon allows these FIDO2 based security keys to securely roam user credentials using the same trusted technology that Infineon has been delivering to Windows devices for well over a decade.”

Infineon is a co-founder of the FIDO Alliance, and the company says it is the first hardware-based security chip supplier to publicly demonstrate a reference design for FIDO2.

Article Topics

authentication  |  FIDO  |  Google  |  Infineon  |  Microsoft  |  RSA