Nok Nok Labs announces new major deployment of FIDO biometrics and distribution partnership

Nok Nok Labs has announced a new deployment of its biometric technology by Japan’s largest bank and a new distribution partnership to offer its FIDO-certified authentication technology to a range of industries in Germany.

Through its partnership with Hitachi, Nok Nok Labs will provide its S3 Authentication Suite to MUFG Bank to enable internet banking customers to execute banking transactions faster with strong security backed by global standards, according to the announcement. Customers can use any biometrics available on iOS and Android devices for mobile banking applications, and NNL S3 Suite authentication is interoperable with MUFG Bank’s existing security environments.

With digital payments in Japan projected by Statista to increase by nearly 5 percent CAGR to $184 billion in value, addressing the scalability of attacks is key, Nok Nok Labs VP of Sales Jackie Comp told Biometric Update in an email interview.

“Nok Nok’s FIDO based platform addresses the main challenges and vulnerabilities of legacy authentication which include phishing, man-in-the-middle, and scalable attacks,” comments Comp. “By leveraging the secure hardware on-devices for storing private keys, and only storing public keys on the server, scalable attacks are no longer possible.”

Japanese mobile network operator Softbank recently deployed NNL S3 Suite to provide biometric authentication to its ten million mobile subscribers. Asked about the robust deployment of FIDO standards in Japan, and how other regions compare, Comp points to the highly publicized implementation of Nok Nok and FIDO several years ago by NTT Docomo.

“They are viewed as a technology leader and helped create momentum early on for FIDO and Nok Nok,” she says. “Since then, many large partners in Japan including Fujitsu, Hitachi, DDS, etc. have adopted FIDO as part of their go-to-market offering. Additionally, regulation for strong authentication that is privacy preserving has fueled adoption. This same dynamic is happening in other geographies where early adopters are now sharing their successes, like T-Mobile and Intuit in the Americas, and where regulation like NIST 800.63 and PSD2 and GDPR are accelerating momentum.”

In the German market, leading multi-vendor enterprise authentication specialist MTRIX GmbH will offer the NNL S3 Suite, along with SDKs and SaaS products, to its customer base. That broad base includes customers in the banking, insurance, automotive supply, medical, and education industries, as well as the public sector, IT service providers and system integrators.

Comp says that while need for FIDO authentication is particularly high among banks and insurance companies due to regulatory, security and privacy concerns, “everyone can benefit from moving to strong customer authentication.”

“Recently we have seen here in Germany that poorly configured passwords can lead to a compromise of private information of our elected officials,” Nok Nok Labs Senior Director of Products Rolf Lindemann said in the announcement. “Nok Nok is pleased to be working with MTRIX to help their customers utilize an easily to implement, frictionless and stronger security profile, utilizing biometric authentication based on the globally accepted FIDO standards.”

“Both Hitachi and MTRIX offer a comprehensive approach to digital transformation which includes strong customer authentication,” according to Comp. “They have deep domain expertise in identity and authentication and are able to work with their relying parties through the planning, design and implementation of this strategic transformation.”

Article Topics

authentication  |  banking  |  biometrics  |  distribution  |  FIDO Alliance  |  Japan  |  Nok Nok Labs