Submission + - DARPA, FIDO Alliance Join Race to Replace Passwords (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: Nearly everyone agrees that passwords are the bane of Internet security. For years, industry thinkers have somewhat vaguely referenced the need for Internet fingerprints capable of reliably verifing identities online. Yet here we are, it’s 2013 and passwords remain the primary means of authenticating users onto networks and workstations.
Two groups today announced projects bent on taking passwords to the curb. The first is an industry group calling itself the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance. It consists of the computer-maker, Lenovo, the security firm, Nok Nok Labs, the online payment giant, PayPal, the biometrics experts, Agnito, and the authentication specialists, Validity. The second is the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), a research and development arm of the Defense Department.
DARPA’s Active Authentication program initially sought to develop tools designed to protect desktop workstations. The program is entering its second phase, in which the agency is calling for research that sets out to establish behavioral biometrics based on discernible cognitive processes and the observable ways that users naturally interact with their environment while using their computing devices. The Active Authentication program will also need to develop what DARPA is calling a “biometric platform,” that integrates all available biometrics into a single device that carries out the actual business of authentication.
Two groups today announced projects bent on taking passwords to the curb. The first is an industry group calling itself the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance. It consists of the computer-maker, Lenovo, the security firm, Nok Nok Labs, the online payment giant, PayPal, the biometrics experts, Agnito, and the authentication specialists, Validity. The second is the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), a research and development arm of the Defense Department.
DARPA’s Active Authentication program initially sought to develop tools designed to protect desktop workstations. The program is entering its second phase, in which the agency is calling for research that sets out to establish behavioral biometrics based on discernible cognitive processes and the observable ways that users naturally interact with their environment while using their computing devices. The Active Authentication program will also need to develop what DARPA is calling a “biometric platform,” that integrates all available biometrics into a single device that carries out the actual business of authentication.
