FIDO Alliance launches biometric certification program to grow industry trust

In an effort to alleviate concerns about the accuracy and reliability of biometric technologies, the FIDO Alliance has launched a Biometric Component Certification Program, which it says is the first program of its kind.

Under the program, accredited independent third-party laboratories will certify that biometric subcomponents meet internationally recognized performance standards ISO/IEC 19795 and ISO/IEC 30107, which apply to biometric recognition performance and Presentation Attack Detection (PAD), and that they are fit for commercial use. The FIDO Alliance hopes to alleviate the burden on enterprise customers to perform due diligence, and on biometric vendors to repeatedly prove performance to customers.

“The lack of standards has long been an issue in biometrics, forcing security professionals to ‘get deep in the weeds’ to not only understand the attributes that are important but subsequently evaluate vendors on those attributes. An unbiased Alliance-based certification program expedites solution evaluation for companies but also eases adoption by providing assurances to the C-suite of proper choice,” said Frank Dickson, research vice president, IDC.

The program is open to all biometric authenticator subcomponents, and vendors with systems that meet the standards will be issued a Biometric Subcomponent Certificate to prove their achievement, according to the announcement. The FIDO Authenticator Certification Program is also offered to demonstrate conformity to cryptographic FIDO specifications.

“With biometrics being a popular option for mobile and web applications implementing FIDO Authentication, there is a growing need for those service providers to appropriately assess the risk of fraud from lost or stolen devices. While border control and law enforcement markets have mature assessment programs for their biometric systems, we were surprised that no such program existed for this rapidly growing consumer market,” said Brett McDowell, executive director of the FIDO Alliance. “As an organization that is driven by our members’ real-world business requirements, and already experienced at delivering globally scalable high-quality certification programs, the FIDO Alliance was the organization our members chose to fill this gap in the market.”

The FIDO Alliance will host a webinar on the certification programs on September 12, 2018, at 1:00 p.m. eastern time.

Nine new companies were announced as having completed FIDO certification earlier this summer, bringing the number of FIDO Certified products to 465.

Article Topics

biometric testing  |  biometrics  |  certification  |  FIDO Alliance  |  FIDO Biometric Component Certification  |  standards