Passkeys advance with FIDO Alliance Guidelines, $3.5M for 0pass

In an eventful week for the prospects of widespread passkey adoption, the FIDO Alliance has published new guidelines for enterprises, Windows 11 has enhanced support for passkey enrolment for apps and websites, and Y Combinator-backed startup 0pass has announced a $3.5 million seed round.

FIDO Alliance publishes passkey guide for enterprises

The FIDO Alliance has published a series of papers aimed at guiding enterprises on the implementation of passkeys for secure authentication.

In the four new guiding documents, the Alliance said passkeys offer enhanced security and a user-friendly experience compared to passwords and other vulnerable authentication methods.

The guidance, developed by the FIDO Alliance’s Enterprise Deployment Working Group (EDWG), addresses common concerns and considerations for using passkeys in different enterprise use cases.

Topics covered include enterprise passkey deployment, replacing password-only authentication, FIDO authentication for moderate and high assurance use cases, and replacing password and SMS one-time password (OTP) authentication (a paper regarding this last topic is expected to publish later this summer).

“Passkeys are a new concept to many enterprise organizations, in terms of both terminology and FIDO authentication capabilities,” says Andrew Shikiar, executive director and CMO of the FIDO Alliance.

“These papers provide a great foundation for anyone looking to understand how passkeys can increase their organization’s security posture, meet legal and regulatory requirements and decrease support and other costs associated with authentication.”

The FIDO Alliance will also host a free virtual summit on June 29 to provide further insights on passkey implementation in enterprise environments.

0pass secures $3.5M in seed funding

Tech startup 0pass has successfully raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Initialized Capital’s Brett Gibson, with participation from Y Combinator, BoxGroup, 645 Ventures, AngelList’s Avlok K. and Akhil Paul.

Describing the move in a Linkedin post published on Tuesday, 0pass said it intends to use the new funds to develop its passwordless technology further.

The company, which graduated from Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 cohort, supports passkeys and various forms of biometric authentication, including through YubiKeys, Face ID, Touch ID and Windows Hello.

Windows 11 introduces passkey sign-in

Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23486 to its Dev Channel, introducing several passwordless improvements.

The new passkey feature, in particular, allows users to replace passwords when signing into websites and applications, making it harder for threat actors to steal credentials.

Describing the new feature in a recent blog post, Microsoft said the new feature allows users to enroll and use passkeys to sign in using the Windows Hello native experience, which includes face and fingerprint biometrics, as well as PIN authentication.

Additionally, users can create and sign in using passkeys saved on their Windows device or mobile device.

The update also provides users with better control over managing passkeys and includes various fixes and improvements across different areas of Windows 11.

Article Topics

0pass  |  biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  FIDO Alliance  |  funding  |  Microsoft  |  passkeys