Authentication specialists Nok Nok Labs has introduced support for the new Fast Identity Online (FIDO) 1.0 security standard, which will help introduce stronger authentication beyond current username and password methods.
FIDO 1.0 will allow device manufacturers, online service providers and enterprises to implement more secure and easy-to-use mechanisms that reduce reliance on “singlefactor” passwords and PINs, including biometrics and token-based authentication.
The support will be integrated into a new version of Nok Nok Labs’ S3 Authentication Suite. The suite supports the finalised Universal Authentication Framework (UAF) prototcol from FIDO to enable password-supplanting mechanisms, as well as SDKs to support the creation of FIDO-enabled third-party authenticators, web and mobile apps.
Nok Nok Labs said the S3 Authentication Suite had already seen deployments by PayPal and Chinese e-payment service Alipay, both of which are now using fingerprint authentication payment processing based on its technology.
It added further trials were in progress at major banks and mobile operators, as well as within “major trading networks” and healthcare-based applications.
Philip Dunkelberger, CEO of Nok Nok Labs, said the new FIDO standard would help prevent a repeat of the mass security breaches at US stores Home Depot and Target earlier this year and in 2013.
He said: “As a founding member of FIDO Alliance, we recognise the demand in the market for a unified solution to allow for a more secure yet simpler experience. This announcement is about the industry coming together and to solve a major problem and showing that a 50 year-old convention has outlived its usefulness.”
Nok Nok Labs, which consists of over 150 members worldwide including delegates from PayPal, Lenovo and Vodafone, also revealed it had secured an additional $8.25 million (€6.66 million) in its latest round of fundraising, which it said would be used to expand its support capabilities and meet growing demand in Asia-Pac.
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