PR: Discover Joins FIDO Alliance

Discover card announced today they have joined the FIDO alliance.

The FIDO alliance was established in 2012 to combat identification issues. The FIDO alliance is set on building standards to better the authentication process for online users. Companies that join the FIDO alliance share their receptive technologies to insure authentication and user safety across other platforms who also partake in the alliance. Members of the alliance include Google, MasterCard, PayPal and Microsoft among others. Discover will contribute their authentication technologies to the other companies, and in return will be able to utilize theirs as well.

Here is the official Press Release:

Discover Financial Services and the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, an industry consortium revolutionizing online authentication with the first standards-based specifications, today announced that Discover has joined the Alliance and been appointed to the Board of Directors.

FIDO members commit to share technology and collaborate to deliver open specifications for universal strong authentication that enables FIDO-compliant authentication methods to be interoperable, more secure and private, and easier to use.

“The implementation of a fast and secure authentication method will allow us to both serve our customers and protect their information better, improving the overall customer experience,” said Daniel Almenara, vice president of authentication and decision infrastructure solutions at Discover. “Discover is committed to the continued improvement of universal authentication standards. We look forward to contributing the resources and expertise to these discussions on stronger authentication and more secure methods.”

Open FIDO specifications will support a full range of authentication technologies, including biometrics such as fingerprint and iris scanners, voice and facial recognition, as well as existing solutions and communications standards, such as Trusted Platform Modules (TPM), USB Security Tokens, embedded Secure Elements (eSE), Smart Cards, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and Near Field Communication (NFC). The open specifications are being designed to be extensible and to accommodate future innovation, as well as protect existing investments. FIDO specifications allow the interaction of technologies within a single infrastructure, enabling security options to be tailored to the distinct needs of each user and organization.

“Our Board of Directors and the whole financial services community are stronger today as we welcome Discover Financial Services to the FIDO Alliance. With our rapidly growing body of members, Discover joins a powerful global ecosystem in bringing open standards for strong authentication to the marketplace for an easier user experience that is more secure and private,” said Michael Barrett, president of the FIDO Alliance. “True to its reputation, Discover continues to lead the financial services industry in innovation and service to the individual. Their commitment to FIDO authentication will improve millions of Discover users’ experiences, and equip Discover merchants with advanced management controls over risk.”

The FIDO approach ensures that Relying Parties (RPs), such as Discover, and their users have a variety of choices for better authentication that overcomes the prevailing reliance on passwords. FIDO authentication is designed with a core focus on privacy -- all biometric or personal identifying information (PII) stays local on the user’s device and is never shared to the Cloud Cloud The cloud or cloud computing helps provides data and applications that can be accessed from nearly any location in the world so long as a stable Internet connection exists. Categorized into three cloud services, cloud computing is segmented into Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). In terms of trading, the versatility of the cloud service allows retail traders the ability to test out new trading strategies, backtest pre-existing conc The cloud or cloud computing helps provides data and applications that can be accessed from nearly any location in the world so long as a stable Internet connection exists. Categorized into three cloud services, cloud computing is segmented into Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). In terms of trading, the versatility of the cloud service allows retail traders the ability to test out new trading strategies, backtest pre-existing conc Read this Term or over the network.