What is FIDO?

What is FIDO?

FIDO (Fast Identity Online) is an open industry consortium that aims to develop and promote passwordless authentication standards for online user verification. The FIDO Alliance was established in 2013 by a group of technology companies, including PayPal, Lenovo, and Google, and has since grown to include over 250 member organizations.

FIDO standards enable secure and convenient user authentication without the need for passwords or other shared secrets. Instead, FIDO authentication relies on public key cryptography to authenticate users using unique private keys stored securely on their personal devices such as smartphones, USB tokens, or biometric sensors. These keys are used to perform cryptographic operations to authenticate the user without the need to transmit or store any sensitive data on servers.

FIDO supports two main standards: UAF (Universal Authentication Framework) and U2F (Universal 2nd Factor). UAF allows users to authenticate to a service using biometric information such as fingerprints or facial recognition, while U2F provides a second factor of authentication using a USB or NFC device. Both standards aim to make online authentication more secure, easier to use, and less dependent on passwords.

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