FIDO Alliance Welcomes Leading Technology Company ARM to the Board of Directors to Help Deliver a Secure World Beyond Passwords

CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM and MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 22, 2014) - The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, the industry consortium revolutionizing secure online authentication, has announced that ARM, the world's leading semiconductor design company, has joined the Board of Directors. The FIDO Alliance Board comprises some of the world's most influential corporations including Microsoft, Google, Bank of America and Samsung.

The Alliance brings members together with the aim of creating simple, strong authentication based on industry standards that are ideally suited to emerging methods such as biometrics and trusted user interfaces.

"We are very excited to welcome ARM to the FIDO Alliance Board of Directors. As FIDO Alliance membership now exceeds 100 participants, ARM is moving from sponsor to board membership, taking on an important leadership role within the FIDO ecosystem," said Michael Barrett, president of the FIDO Alliance. "Next developments in FIDO authentication will prove critical to accelerating adoption of strong authentication that can move us beyond the confines of password dependencies. ARM's leadership in many global markets can measurably facilitate interoperability among authentication methods, which is foundational to the FIDO Alliance's objectives."

"ARM is supportive of FIDO's vision of a world beyond passwords and our security architecture can help to turn that into reality," says Rob Coombs, director of security marketing, ARM. "As a board member we want to push for the universal adoption of FIDO authentication as it will allow people to securely connect to the services they care about in a frictionless way that links multiple web-based services with a diverse range of devices.

Rob continues: "Biometrics are already being used to authorize financial transactions from a smartphone, and it's easy to see how technology such as an ARM^® TrustZone^® technology-based Trusted Execution Environment can be used with FIDO standards to move beyond passwords into a world where authentication methods are interoperable. The key is ensuring that embedded security builds on appropriate hardware and software that is well integrated so it's fit for purpose and cost-effective."

ARM has been developing secure technology for the mobile market for many years and its TrustZone-based Trusted Execution Environment is now embedded in hundreds of millions of smart connected devices. It runs separately from the main operating system and enhances endpoint security, enabling new services such as pay-as-you-go premium content on any screen, with fast and secure website logins, simple and secure payment and banking. It is designed to enhance the user experience and protect against malicious attacks in an integrated and cost-effective way.