Android’s FIDO2 Certification Could Mean A Passwordless Future

Right now passwords still rule the majority of our apps online services. While passwords are still very much functional, they do present certain problems like forgetting them and also the possibility of someone else guessing or figuring out your passwords, thus giving them access to your accounts.

The good news is that at MWC 2019, the FIDO Alliance has announced that Google’s Android operating system is now FIDO2 certified. For those who are unfamiliar, the gist of it is that with the FIDO2 standard, users will be able to use other means of authentication besides passwords to log into websites and apps. In fact, back in 2018, Microsoft issued an update for Windows 10 that allowed for passwordless logins.

According to Christiaan Brand, Product Manager, Google, “Google has long worked with the FIDO Alliance and W3C to standardize FIDO2 protocols, which give any application the ability to move beyond password authentication while offering protection against phishing attacks. Today’s announcement of FIDO2 certification for Android helps move this initiative forward, giving our partners and developers a standardized way to access secure keystores across devices, both in market already as well as forthcoming models, in order to build convenient biometric controls for users.”

This announcement doesn’t really come as a surprise as Google had previously launched the Titan security key, a USB dongle that authenticates the user as long as it remains plugged into the computer. Other similar products include Yubico’s YubiKey which can also be used for mobile devices.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Android, Google, MWC, MWC 2019, Security