FIDO Alliance, the global member association developing specifications and an interoperable solutions ecosystem for simpler, stronger authentication, has accelerated momentum both in Europe and worldwide in 2018, five years since its launch, with a number of significant milestones, including:

Launch of FIDO2: In partnership with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), FIDO Alliance announced the achievement of a major standards milestone in the global effort to bring simpler yet stronger web authentication to users worldwide. The FIDO2 project, designed to bring FIDO authentication to billions of users through updated web browsers and device operating systems,  launched with committed browser support from Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox, and marks a significant step towards creating a web less reliant on passwords and making FIDO standards ubiquitous across all platforms. The FIDO Alliance enables users to securely access web services through browsers via a single gesture — such as touching a fingerprint sensor, looking at a camera or inserting a security key.

• Amazon and Facebook join FIDO Board of Directors: For consumers, both security and ease of use are paramount. As a result, FIDO seeks companies that are defining the digital economy to join its board. The latest appointments, internet giants Amazon and Facebook, join other leading global technology, financial services and e-commerce board members in driving the Alliance’s strategic vision to reduce the world’s reliance on passwords with stronger, simpler authentication
• GDPR: As detailed in a recently released white paper, FIDO standards were built with a “privacy by design” approach and are optimised for compliance with the new regulation, which came into force on May 25, 2018. With a wide range of FIDO(R) Certified products on the market, FIDO authentication represents the best way for organisations to implement stronger authentication that meets GDPR’s rigorous requirements, while at the same time, enhancing the user experience
• Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) and solving the strong customer authentication challenge in Europe: Concerns among the European financial ecosystem around how to best comply with PSD2 range beyond simply meeting the security requirements; the costs, the impact of GDPR and overall customer experience also are important considerations. FIDO Authentication offers financial institutions scalable, standards-based solutions to the PSD2 Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) challenge in Europe. The consortium has been working to educate the market with whitepapers, a specialist webinar and other resources on the topic
• European Working Group update: Launched in November 2017, the Group was established to help accelerate the use of FIDO authentication standards in Europe. Co-chaired by executives from Gemalto and ING, the Working Group has grown to its current composition of 22 member organisations and has helped inform FIDO’s positions on the aforementioned regulatory activities while also working to educate and engage the European marketplace

“With the recent arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) this week, European regulators are introducing a new era for privacy best practices that will influence the world at large,” said Brett McDowell, executive director of the FIDO Alliance. “Members of the FIDO Alliance have published this guideline as one of many activities designed to help educate businesses on the benefits of FIDO — today’s leading privacy and security best practice for strong customer authentication — easing regulatory compliance while improving the customer experience across Europe’s Digital Single Market.”