Changing the Nature of Authentication
The FIDO Alliance is an open industry association with a focused mission: reduce the world’s reliance on passwords. To accomplish this, the FIDO Alliance promotes the development of, use of, and compliance with standards for authentication and device attestation.
Passwords endure despite the growing consensus their use needs to be reduced, if not replaced. Consumers don’t like the user experience, and online service providers don’t want the cost and complexity of developing and provisioning their own dedicated solutions.
The FIDO Alliance is changing the nature of authentication with open standards for phishing-resistant sign-ins with passkeys that are more secure than passwords and SMS OTPs, simpler for consumers and employees to use, and easier for service providers to deploy and manage. The Alliance also provides standards for secure device onboarding to ensure the security and efficiency of connected devices operating in cloud and IoT environments.
The FIDO Alliance works to fulfill its mission by:
- Developing technical specifications that define an open, scalable, interoperable set of mechanisms that reduce the reliance on passwords to authenticate users and devices
- Operating industry certification programs to help ensure successful worldwide adoption of the specifications
- Providing education and market adoption programs to promote the use of FIDO globally
- Submitting mature technical specification(s) to recognized standards development organization(s) for formal standardization
Specification Development
The FIDO Alliance currently has published three sets of user authentication specifications for simpler, stronger authentication: FIDO Universal Second Factor (FIDO U2F), FIDO Universal Authentication Framework (FIDO UAF) and FIDO2, which includes the W3C’s Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification and FIDO Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP). The Alliance also has a specification for secure onboarding of edge and IoT devices (FDO). The specifications are open and free for global use.
Certification Programs
Interoperability among FIDO products in the market is critical for worldwide adoption of FIDO Authentication. The FIDO Certified program allows companies to validate conformance to the FIDO specifications and ensure interoperability across certified products. Current FIDO Alliance certification programs available are the User Authentication Functional Certification, Certified Authenticator Levels, Biometric Component Certification, FIDO Device Onboard Certification and Document Authenticity Certification.
Membership
The FIDO Alliance is driven by the hundreds of global tech leaders across enterprise, payments, telecom, government and healthcare that have come together in support of the organization’s mission to reduce the world’s reliance on passwords. Alliance members contribute to this mission by influencing the development of FIDO specifications, establishing best practices for deployment of FIDO Authentication, and driving global awareness of the Alliance, its mission and the FIDO specifications.
Working Groups
The FIDO Alliance also has member-driven working groups that help to facilitate its mission, including developing specification and certification programs, providing deployment guidance, and driving adoption in various vertical markets and regions.
Industry Engagement
The FIDO Alliance has strong industry engagement through its liaison partnership program and its involvement in policy and government.
The Alliance sees significant value in collaborating with other associations from around the world that share its vision. Learn about the Alliance’s liaison partners, or how to initiate a liaison relationship here.
Through its policy program, the FIDO Alliance engages in meaningful discussion with policymakers around the world on how FIDO specifications offer newer, better options for strong authentication, and the updates to policy necessary to support them. Learn about the Alliance’s role in policy and government here.
Upcoming Events
Join the FIDO Alliance at one of our upcoming events to learn more about the technology, hear first-hand about deployments and best practices for your own implementation.
