FIDO Alliance Opens Worldwide Cooperation & Liaison Program - Welcomes Associations to Partner on FIDO Standards for Universal Strong Authentication

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 13, 2015) - The FIDO® (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance (https://www.fidoalliance.org/), an industry consortium launched in 2013 to revolutionize online security with open standards for simpler, stronger authentication, today introduced the FIDO Cooperation & Liaison Program, inviting associations worldwide to provide their requirements and perspectives to influence development of FIDO standards for universal strong authentication and to learn how their stakeholders can best apply the FIDO standards to their market's need for moving beyond password security.

The FIDO Cooperation & Liaison Program responds to a critical need for collaboration among global not-for-profit associations. These organizations serve a range of industry-specific or region-specific requirements for technology, especially online privacy and security. The first FIDO liaison partners include Biometrics Institute, Bluetooth SIG, Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), GlobalPlatform, International Biometrics & Identification Association (IBIA), National Cyber Security Alliance, OpenID Foundation, Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), SmartCard Alliance and W3C.

"We invite every opportunity to work closely with associations of stakeholders that share a common need for better online authentication and open industry standards," said Brett McDowell, FIDO Alliance executive director. "We welcome our liaison partners and congratulate them on their initiative in joining us in this shared mission as they serve their own members' need to innovate and establish new industry best practices for safe and easy access to online services from any device."

Taking note of its recent meteoric growth, the FIDO Alliance leadership recognizes that not every organization will join FIDO as a formal member, yet most organizations with market influence are already members of one or more trade associations that help them establish technology best practices for their market and/or region. The FIDO Alliance's mission is highly complementary to these industry associations and consortia. The FIDO Liaison Program presents partnership opportunities for associations to be represented among the FIDO stakeholders and to make meaningful contributions to the FIDO ecosystem through sharing of requirements, case studies, and lessons learned. Equally, and perhaps more important, this new program opens a channel for cooperation and communication between the 200+ FIDO Alliance member companies and government agencies to work with representatives from a growing number of vertical market and regional industry bodies to accelerate informed adoption of this new technology at a pace not otherwise possible.