Okta buys Uno to absorb password management in consumer digital ID pivot

Okta, an  enterprise identity and access management (IAM) firm headquartered in San Francisco, has purchased Uno, a design-focused consumer password manager, to support the rollout of its first consumer product, Okta Personal.

A blog post by the VP and GM of Okta Personal, Vivek Raman, says the Uno team will bring added experience in security, AI and digital identity to new consumer software. Okta Personal is a free password manager that lets users securely store, save, and autofill passwords for all their personal apps, across multiple devices.

According to an article in GovInfo Security, the entire Uno team of 28 people will join Okta, which is looking to establish a firmer hold in the consumer identity market. Parteek Saran, who founded Uno in 2021, says the Uno app will be discontinued, but users can look forward to interacting with the best parts of the product’s user-friendly design in Okta Personal.

“The goal with Uno was to put a fresh face to the world of security – something that didn’t feel technical, but inviting and fun to use,” Saran wrote in a LinkedIn post. “We thoughtfully built tech that will be invaluable to Okta’s vision.”

Okta Personal is now available in beta as a new feature in Okta’s Workforce Identity Cloud.

Not so fast, passwords: Okta launches passkey support

Okta’s ambitions in purchasing Uno clearly do not stop at releasing a sexier password manager. In tandem with the acquisition – the company’s first since 2021, when it bought the workplace operations platform atSpoke and customer access and identity management platform Auth0 – Okta is rolling out early access passkey support to enable passwordless authentication for the Auth0-powered Okta Customer Identity Cloud, says a company release.

The firm’s plans clearly factor in how global industry and security is trending away from passwords and towards passkeys, which are more resistant to phishing and eliminate the problem of having to create, remember or store numerous passwords. Some in the industry have even bid passwords a formal adieu.

Okta knows that is hyperbole, recognizing that passkeys still have some ways to go in becoming the norm. Simple integrations and configurations, as well as strong consumer trust in the technology, are essential for widespread adoption.

“For the broader end-user population to fully embrace passkeys, they must truly become a ubiquitous feature,” says Vittorio Bertocci, principal architect at Okta.

“Achieving this ubiquity hinges on ensuring that it’s seamless for all developers to incorporate passkeys into their applications.”

Not so fast, passkeys: Okta enhances CIAM with new features

“Passkeys are powerful, but they’re also just the tip of the spear,” says Shiven Ramji, President of Customer Identity Cloud at Okta, putting a bit of a damper on the passkey launch announcement. “Paired with our powerful extensibility, Okta gives application builders the most complete set of authentication, authorization, lifecycle and user management, and identity security tools, so they can focus more on innovation, and less on identity.”

Updates to the firm’s Customer Identity Cloud CIAM include (yes) passkeys, no-code automation for customer identity flows, and the option to use a phone number as a sole identifier, to make the service accessible in more countries.

Not so fast, Okta: passkeys for authentication are no secret power

Meanwhile, the great passwordless push continues across the sector, and new alliances are being formed. Stockholm-based Identity and Access Management (IAM) firm Varasec has entered into a strategic collaboration with Swissbit, to provide credential management systems for Swissbit’s hardware-based authentication products. “Versasec is on a mission to enable the adoption of FIDO as a significant authentication method for enterprises globally,” says Joakim Thorén, CEO at Versasec, in a release.

Amazon’s AWS web service will soon require multi factor authentication (MFA). On its security blog, the company says as of mid-2024, MFA will have to be enabled for login to the AWS management console. “We recommend that everyone adopts some form of MFA,” says the post, “and additionally encourage customers to consider choosing forms of MFA that are phishing-resistant, such as security keys.”

Florida’s Identité bills itself as “a company that is committed to eliminating passwords,” and has released a WordPress plugin to that end, allowing developers to add password- and SMS-passcode-free MFA to websites. “With the WordPress plugin, we created a simple and fast way for developers to offer the PasswordFree MFA experience in their web portal,” says John Hertrich, CEO of Identité, in a release.

Ping Identity, a Denver-based digital ID platform for enterprise, is launching PingOne for Customers Passwordless, a cloud service aimed at accelerating businesses’ transition to a passwordless standard. Says Andre Durand, CEO and founder, in a release: “Frictionless customer experiences are a holy grail for many digital transformations and can lead to happier customers, stronger brand loyalty and ultimately, more digital business.”

Passkeys are a flat circle

Finally, a release says Yubico, a multifactor access security key firm based in Stockholm and Santa Clara, California, has launched a new automation service for onboarding employees to passwordless systems. FIDO Pre-reg is available through its YubiEnterprise Subscription. It provides passwordless onboarding and account recovery at scale for enterprises via a FIDO2/passkey credential. The inaugural identity provider is Okta.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  FIDO2  |  identity access management (IAM)  |  Okta  |  passkeys  |  passwordless authentication