Authentication vendor Nok Nok says it supports passkeys

One of the founders of the FIDO Alliance has announced its full support for passkeys, a security standard that backers say could finally put a stake through the heart of passwords.

The company is Nok Nok Labs, a passwordless consumer authentication vendor. Google announced this month that it is supporting passkeys in Chrome browser and Android operating system. Microsoft also supports the standard.

Apple in June said it was testing passkeys – a concept it endorses — for MacOS Ventura and final code could be ready by yearend. Passkeys for iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 could follow this year as well.

A passkey is a two-part cryptographic standard covering how one half of a key that is created on and stored on a device securely recognizes the second half of a key. The second cryptographic part is stored on web sites and apps.

For example, on an iPhone, consumer would initiate a passkey relationship on an online retailer’s site. The second key would be created recognizing the first one. No one ever sees the consumer’s key because it is never shared. The consumer’s key can be a biometric identifier.

Nok Nok creates FIDO-based biometric authentication software for mobile and web apps. Customers use its S3 Authentication Suite to increase security.

The FIDO Alliance this month published a report written by Sapio Research that found password use has dropped globally, but by an incremental percentage that is far smaller than the rate of increase in social engineering and other attacks.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  cryptography  |  FIDO Alliance  |  Nok Nok Labs  |  passkeys  |  passwordless authentication  |  standards