Passwordless authentication providers unveil digital ID partnerships and progress

Passwordless authentication based on FIDO specifications, with and without biometrics, appears to be picking up steam. Nok Nok Labs has reviewed its first-half milestones, Versasec has joined FIDO, Identité is providing biometric technology to promote passwordless cybersecurity, and Hypr has joined up with Microsoft.

Nok Nok Labs has claimed a raft of milestone achievements over the first half of 2021, including reaching 500 million digital identity key-pairs deployed, deployments by five of the top 10 global banks and five of the world’s top mobile network operators (MNOs), as well as more than 50 global patents issued or granted. Further on the theme of “five,” Nok Nok has now released five SDKs to help organizations implement its passwordless authentication on devices running Apple iOS, Android, the web, smartwatches, and IoT products.

The company also now has a presence on five continents.

“As an inventor of FIDO standards, we helped start this journey because we felt that the internet could not be fully secure without first fixing the password problem,” states Phillip Dunkelberger, CEO of Nok Nok Labs, Inc. “FIDO standards have now been embraced by the world’s largest browsers, operating systems, banks, fintech’s, MNOs and software application providers who need to adopt, deploy, and manage a more secure authentication solution that is focused on stronger security and privacy. Our FIDO-certified solutions lead the industry and are deployed at internet scale – with support for the broadest set of use cases.”

Versasec joins FIDO

FIDO Alliance is welcoming digital ID credential management system provider Versasec as a member to help advance the organization’s goal of moving authentication beyond passwords and one-time passwords (OTPs).

“As the FIDO Alliance has grown, its focus has moved beyond consumer authentication to now include enterprise customers with the FIDO2 authentication protocol. We feel we can add a lot of value to the discussion and contribute to creating a true enterprise credential that supports many options beyond website logon,” Versasec CEO Joakim Thorén says. “There are so many advantages with hardware-based multi-factor authentication in enterprise environments, and we’ll be working with the Alliance to ensure they are recognized.”

There are now over 40 board-level FIDO Alliance members, and over 60 sponsor-level members.

Identité brings passwordless technology to cybersecurity community

Identité and non-profit cybersecurity organization Virtually Testing Foundation (VTF) have partnered to implement passwordless biometric authentication platform Identité NoPass.

NoPass was launched last year, with customer and employee versions, and will be implemented for VTF employees in an internal environment, and then for external-facing websites. The NoPass authentication server is paired with an app on the user’s mobile device, to verify multiple authentication factors, including a device-based biometric.

VTF Vice-Chairman of the Board Victor Monga says the partnership will give the cybersecurity community real-world, hands-on experience with passwordless authentication.

“Authentication should be simple and secure, and without passwords,” says Joe Skocich, VP of Global Sales and Marketing for Identité. “Our goal was to offer a product that is simple enough that my mother-in-law can use it, yet strong enough to comply with NIST AAL3. NoPass is simple to use and takes phishing off the table.”

Hypr joins Microsoft group to advance passwordless MFA

Hypr has joined the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), giving it access to the tech giant’s security products and expanded network. Microsoft customers will be able to use Hypr’s True Passwordless MFA technology, which is interoperable with Microsoft Azure Active Directory.

The combined solution, according to the partners, enables cross-cloud, cross-platform passwordless logins, including single sign-on (SSO), desktop multi-factor authentication (MFA), and mobile-to-web authentication for Microsoft 365 and other apps. It also prevents attackers from compromising devices with system-level or bulk attacks.

Hypr raised $35 million just months ago to scale its organization and accelerate passwordless MFA adoption.

Article Topics

access management  |  authentication  |  biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  FIDO Alliance  |  HYPR  |  Identité  |  Microsoft  |  Nok Nok Labs  |  passwordless authentication  |  standards  |  Versasec