b'THE OFFICIAL NFBA MAGAZINEA FUTURE WITHOUT PASSWORDSBUSINESSSECURITYBy: Jack GerbsQuanexusA pple, Google, and Microsoft are on the road toThe FIDO (Fast Identity Online) eliminating passwords for all online services.Alliance is the group behind the higher-The three tech giants committed to addinglevel authentication technology. To or enabling the technology needed to allow users tomaximize adoption FIDO was looking choose their phone as the main authentication devicefor something end-users already have and making for websites and digital services. A user would be ablethe process as user-friendly as possible. The FIDO to unlock their smartphone, as they do now, with aAlliance takes authentication out of the hands of the PIN, face ID, or fingerprint, and that action wouldindividual service and moves it to a higher-level security take the place of entering a password on a website. Themechanism.authentication would work through a cryptographicThis shift from letting every service fend for themselves token called a passkey. The new authentication methodwith their own password-based authentication system would also make phishing more difficult because loginto relying on the higher security of the platforms would require a physical device. authentication mechanisms, is how we can meaningfully Passwords are an ineffective way to authenticate forreduce the Internets over reliance on passwords at a a service. Users are bad at password management.massive scale, FIDO said.About 25% of people reuse passwords, and an equalThe FIDO Alliance has been working on a password-25% use weak, easily guessable passwords. But we canfree workflow for a decade now. This latest relate to these users. Passwords are a pain, and we areannouncement is the largest step we have seen in the expected to remember a different password for everyquest to zero passwords.service. There are password managers, but they have low usage rates because users dont know what they are, or dont trust them.18 / FRAME BUILDER - NOV2022'