Samsung flagship smartphone biometric components first certified by FIDO Alliance program

The in-display fingerprint system in Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ smartphones is the first product to be certified by the FIDO Alliance’s new Biometric Component Certification Program, validating that the ultrasonic system meets industry standards for user verification and spoof detection.

The Biometric Component Certification Program was launched by the FIDO Alliance last year based on a pair of ISO/IEC standards to provide assurance to customers without requiring repeated proofs of performance.

“As mobile devices increasingly become our primary means of storing sensitive information and conducting critical transactions, the industry leaders in FIDO Alliance have determined the market needs a standard-based means to assess the efficacy of biometric certification components — which is why we recently launched our Biometric Component Certification Program,” said Brett McDowell, Executive Director of FIDO Alliance. “By being first to market with FIDO Alliance biometric component certification for their new line of Galaxy devices, Samsung is positioning the Galaxy S10 and S10+ as the industry best practice for biometric-enabled devices, while at the same time validating the necessity of our program to provide this important benchmark to the marketplace.”

The program is open to all biometric authenticator subcomponents, and certification testing is performed by iBeta Quality Assurace, which performs Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) testing to ISO standards, and was accredited by the FIDO Alliance for the program around the time the program was announced.

“Protection of customers’ data and privacy on our devices is of utmost importance to Samsung, which is why we went through the FIDO Biometric Component Certification Program,” said Henry Jong-Hyeon Lee, SVP and Head of Mobile Security Technologies Group, IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics. “We are very pleased to be the first device manufacturer to have qualified and completed the program, which provides the industry with a strong baseline to assess performance of biometric authentication components.”

Speculation about the biometrics included in the Samsung S10 series has run rampant, particularly over whether it will offer facial recognition.

Article Topics

biometric data  |  biometrics  |  certification  |  data protection  |  FIDO Alliance  |  fingerprint technology  |  Samsung