The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance was officially formed in July 2012 with the aim to bring stronger authentication to consumer markets. Since launching publicly in February 2013 the Alliance membership has grown significantly, with key industry representatives such as Google and BlackBerry joining the effort. Members of the Alliance collaborate to deliver open and scalable specifications for secure and interoperable authentication technologies.

The Alliance also hopes to solve the difficulties users face with creating and recalling multiple usernames and passwords, and last week released a public draft of new security standards that could one day make this a reality.

Peter Cattaneo of Intercede commented, “We are delighted to be a member of The FIDO Alliance.  Intercede has long argued that passwords are not an effective or adequate security measure. If they’re too simple they can easily be cracked and if they’re too long and complicated, users get frustrated; what’s more, they actually don’t verify that you are who you say you are. What’s needed is a secure, simple and convenient alternative.”

The formalisation of the FIDO Alliance’s proposed Universal Second Factor (U2F) and Universal Authentication Framework (UAF) protocols, based on public key cryptography, have been devised with such alternatives in mind, designed to make log-ins more secure and improve the user experience.

Cattaneo added, “Joining the FIDO Alliance means Intercede is in a position to contribute positively to discussions around new authentication standards and specifications for the industry. Intercede has a reputation for providing customers with strong identity and authentication tools and we hope this expertise will be invaluable in the pursuit of the FIDO Alliance’s goals.”

“We are excited to welcome our newest associate member Intercede,” said Michael Barrett, FIDO Alliance president. “The FIDO vision of universal strong authentication promises better security, enhanced privacy, more commerce and expansion of services throughout digital industries. Intercede’s addition to the Alliance supports our industry goal to make user authentication easier and safer for all parties.”

Intercede will demonstrate the use of a secure PIV credential on a secure SIM at Mobile World Congress February 24 to 27 at the GSMA Connected City stands and the Trustonic stand.