Web Payment collaboration group formed to increase security and interoperability

The FIDO Alliance, EMVCo, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) have created a new interest group for collaboration on the security and interoperability of web payments. The Web Payment Security Interest Group will seek areas of collaboration and gaps between existing technical specifications to increase compatibility between technologies, according to the announcement.

The Group is intended to complement existing conversations around specifications, including EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC), EMV 3-D Secure (3DS), FIDO Alliance’s FIDO2 specifications, and the W3C’s Web Authentication and Payment Request APIs. In the future, it could also provide a foundation for collaboration on new technical specifications.

“FIDO Alliance, W3C, and EMVCo develop complementary technologies that can enhance the security and convenience of web payments,” comments EMVCo Executive Committee Chair Karteek Patel. “This group has been created to better understand and shape the future of secure web-based payments, and ensure alignment on the work of the three technical bodies.”

A Technavio report from 2018 suggests the global ecommerce payments market will reach $135 billion by 2022, while Goode Intelligence forecasted more recently that mobile biometric payments will surpass $1.67 trillion by 2023.

“FIDO standards for simpler, stronger authentication can help secure user interactions specified in domain-specific standards developed in other technical bodies,” adds Brett McDowell, executive director, FIDO Alliance. “We are pleased to be working with our payment industry partners on how FIDO authentication and authenticator metadata can support their transaction authorization goals. This interest group will help to streamline coordination and requirements sharing with EMVCo and W3C.”

The scope of the Group’s activities is defined in the Web Payment Security Interest Group charter. It includes formulating a vision for web payment security, development of use cases, gap analysis, liaisons with other organizations, and identifying standardization opportunities for each organization. Technical work will be carried out by member organizations.

“W3C’s authentication and payments standards are part of the bigger story of the transformation of the payments industry,” said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. “The transformation will continue in unpredictable ways as the web adds new services such as streaming video, real-time communications, and augmented reality. This Interest Group will help ensure that new payment models for these services will have security as a fundamental requirement.”

Each of the three founding groups are encouraging their respective members to join the initiative.

Article Topics

authentication  |  biometric payments  |  EMVCo  |  FIDO Alliance  |  standards  |  W3C