Tech giants want to roll out FIDO passkey technology in the coming year
As a collaborative effort, tech giants Apple, Google and Microsoft announced on Thursday morning that they have committed to bringing passwordless login support to all mobile, desktop and browser platforms they control next year.
Plans were announced to support the FIDO Alliance and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard to make it easier for websites and apps to provide end-to-end passwordless authentication via fingerprint/face scan or device PIN.
Under the new proposals, users will be able to automatically access their FIDO login credentials or “passkey” on their devices, including new ones, without having to re-enroll each account.
Essentially, this means that in the near future, passwordless authentication will appear on all major device platforms: Android and iOS mobile operating systems; Chrome, Edge and Safari browsers; and desktop environments for Windows and macOS.
A passwordless login process will let users choose their phones as the main authentication device for apps, websites, and other digital services, as Google detailed in a blog post published Thursday.
They will also be able to use their mobile device to sign in to apps or websites on “nearby” devices on any supported OS or browser, FIDO claimed.
Kurt Knight, senior director of platform product marketing at Apple said just as we design our products to be intuitive and capable, we also design them to be private and secure.
Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft’s vice president for security, compliance, identity, and privacy said with passkeys on your mobile device, you’re able to sign in to an app or service on nearly any device, regardless of the platform or browser the device is running.
Jen Easterly, director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the standards developed by the FIDO Alliance and World Wide Web Consortium and being led in practice by these innovative companies is the type of forward-leaning thinking that will ultimately keep the American people safer online.
“I applaud the commitment of our private sector partners to open standards that add flexibility for the service providers and a better user experience for customers,” said Easterly
“At CISA, we are working to raise the cybersecurity baseline for all Americans. Today is an important milestone in the security journey to encourage built-in security best practices and help us move beyond passwords. Cyber is a team sport, and we’re pleased to continue our collaboration,” she said.
So far, Apple, Google, and Microsoft have all said that they expect the new sign-in capabilities to become available across platforms in the next year, although a more specific roadmap has not been announced.
