UK Government Embraces FIDO in Formal Digital Security Strategy

The UK government is deepening its commitment to the FIDO Alliance’s authentication standards. It has just laid out its UK National Cyber Security Strategy in an 84-page document, and adherence to FIDO is an important component, observes the FIDO Alliance’s Brett McDowell in a new post on the Alliance’s website.

As McDowell notes, the UK government’s digital security experts are aiming to make sure that new online services and products are “secure by default”, and as such their plan is to invest in “emerging industry standards such as Fast IDentity Online (FIDO), which do not rely on passwords for user authentication, but use the machine and other devices in the user’s possession to authenticate.” It’s a strong validation of the FIDO Alliance and its standards, which have been catching on even among non-members as awareness of digital security issues continues to rise in the wake of major hack attacks and the like.

For the UK government, the strategic embrace of FIDO isn’t such a great leap. As McDowell points out, the UK government is already a FIDO member, and its GOV.UK Verify online government services program supports FIDO authentication, too. But in formally adopting FIDO as part of a larger-scale digital security strategy, the government is significantly raising the profile of FIDO while also paving the way for the widespread adoption of sophisticated security technologies like biometric authentication, which is an increasingly important component of many FIDO-based security solutions.

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November 7, 2016 – by Alex Perala