Google and Microsoft promote password-less web logins

by Mark Tyson on 23 April 2018, 16:01

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)

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Google and Microsoft are actively promoting password-less login systems for web sites. The tech giants showed demos leveraging the Fast Identity Online 2.0 (FIDO 2.0) technology standard at the RSA 2018 conference at the end of last week, reports PCMag. Both OS vendors used secure PayPal payments in their demonstrations.

Google showed how an Android smartphone with a fingerprint sensor could be used to easily login to the PayPal website. Say you are purchasing something from a website, then all you have to do to login and approve the purchase is tap the fingerprint reader with a registered fingerprint.

Microsoft demoed a similarly convenient system on a Windows PC. Windows Hello scanned the user’s face to authenticate a web store purchase, backed by PayPal. As Windows Hello can use other biometric inputs, such as fingerprints, I guess using this hardware to authenticate your purchase approval would work too.

Logging into devices and apps with biometrics isn’t anything new but getting the websites you use day-in, day-out to accept such authentication is. If you would like the convenience and security that FIDO 2.0 can offer, you may be happy to know that FIDO has heavyweight backing. As well as Google and Microsoft working to put this authentication system in place, a multitude of heavyweight FIDO Alliance members are shown in the graphic above.

If you need some convincing that something like FIDO 2.0 might be not just be more convenient but safer too, please note that “81 percent of all data breaches in 2016 involved weak or stolen passwords,” according to PCMag’s report. As you can see in the graphic above, FIDO 2 is being implemented in all the major browsers and you can use biometric sensors already in your PC or in a partner device like a USB key, smartphone or smartwatch. Smaller companies might appreciate that FIDO Alliance member Nok Nok Labs is offering to help them migrate their platforms over to the password-less login systems.

It is thought that FIDO 2.o adoption by popular websites will become widespread by 2019.



HEXUS Forums :: 28 Comments

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HMMM.

/tinfoil hat in place.


Yes, and msny such tech giants, and not a few stores, woild absolutely adore being able to 100% accurately biometrically identify all users …. thus validating the identity of individuals in their data warehouses.

No doubt this is coming. It's probably unstoppable at this point. But unless this becomes mandatory for websites I must use, there is no chance of me agreeing to it, And off-hand, I can't think if any websites I hwve to use.

If it's optional, I will not opt.

If it's mandadory (clearly, it won't be initially) I will stop using any and all such sites, unless I have absolutely no choice. This is also the point at which I am likely to go internet-free, and dump having my own internet link (i.e. broadband).

Is it coming? Almost certainly. Will I use it? Not unless given utterly no choice.

In the above, bear in mind I don't use ANY social media sites, closed both paypal and ebay many years ago, and don't remember the last time I bought ANYTHING online, but it certainly was years ago.

It is possible, and in many ways desirable, to live life without internet access. I know, ‘cos I tried it for several months a few years ago, and after about a week, didn’t miss it at all.


The great internet dream of freedom is all but dead, and it's now little more than a schill for corporate vested interest and control, and a purveyor of fake or at least dubious news. We need to shoot the monster and start again. But we won't.

Now, where'd I put my bunker key? I need to check supplies.
Saracen
HMMM.

/tinfoil hat in place.


Yes, and msny such tech giants, and not a few stores, woild absolutely adore being able to 100% accurately biometrically identify all users …. thus validating the identity of individuals in their data warehouses.

No doubt this is coming. It's probably unstoppable at this point. But unless this becomes mandatory for websites I must use, there is no chance of me agreeing to it, And off-hand, I can't think if any websites I hwve to use.

If it's optional, I will not opt.

If it's mandadory (clearly, it won't be initially) I will stop using any and all such sites, unless I have absolutely no choice. This is also the point at which I am likely to go internet-free, and dump having my own internet link (i.e. broadband).

Is it coming? Almost certainly. Will I use it? Not unless given utterly no choice.

In the above, bear in mind I don't use ANY social media sites, closed both paypal and ebay many years ago, and don't remember the last time I bought ANYTHING online, but it certainly was years ago.

It is possible, and in many ways desirable, to live life without internet access. I know, ‘cos I tried it for several months a few years ago, and after about a week, didn’t miss it at all.


The great internet dream of freedom is all but dead, and it's now little more than a schill for corporate vested interest and control, and a purveyor of fake or at least dubious news. We need to shoot the monster and start again. But we won't.

Now, where'd I put my bunker key? I need to check supplies.

If that is the way you feel, why are you still using the internet?
Saracen
HMMM.

/tinfoil hat in place.


Yes, and msny such tech giants, and not a few stores, woild absolutely adore being able to 100% accurately biometrically identify all users …. thus validating the identity of individuals in their data warehouses.

No doubt this is coming. It's probably unstoppable at this point. But unless this becomes mandatory for websites I must use, there is no chance of me agreeing to it, And off-hand, I can't think if any websites I hwve to use.

If it's optional, I will not opt.

If it's mandadory (clearly, it won't be initially) I will stop using any and all such sites, unless I have absolutely no choice. This is also the point at which I am likely to go internet-free, and dump having my own internet link (i.e. broadband).

Is it coming? Almost certainly. Will I use it? Not unless given utterly no choice.

In the above, bear in mind I don't use ANY social media sites, closed both paypal and ebay many years ago, and don't remember the last time I bought ANYTHING online, but it certainly was years ago.

It is possible, and in many ways desirable, to live life without internet access. I know, ‘cos I tried it for several months a few years ago, and after about a week, didn’t miss it at all.


The great internet dream of freedom is all but dead, and it's now little more than a schill for corporate vested interest and control, and a purveyor of fake or at least dubious news. We need to shoot the monster and start again. But we won't.

Now, where'd I put my bunker key? I need to check supplies.

Must have used a full roll of tinfoil this time.
does the fingerprint get translated into a uniquely identifiable key that's used for access or would companies actually be able to copy my exact fingerprint?
Friesiansam
If that is the way you feel, why are you still using the internet?

I like HEXUS.

And I don't use a lot else, and what I do use, I use carefully, via anon VPN.