Anyone using digital media must be able to communicate securely in the virtual world. The aim of the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance is a globally consistent security standard for stronger, yet simple online authentication. A founder and member of the industry consortium since 2012, Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) today announced that it has been named to the Board of Directors of the Alliance. The appointment underlines Infineon’s commitment to driving strong yet simple online authentication through industry standards that define an open, scalable, interoperable set of mechanisms to reduce reliance on passwords.
“As one of the original group of companies to define the vision and mission of the FIDO Alliance, Infineon has played an important role in the successful launch of truly open standards for strong authentication,” said Dustin Ingalls, president of the FIDO Alliance and Group Program Manager at Microsoft. “Though there are more than 200 member companies and FIDO standard technology is deployed in hundreds of millions of devices in the field today, there is still an enormous amount of work to do and we welcome Infineon’s increased participation as a board member.“
Infineon is a leading supplier of secured controller technologies protecting personal identity and computer data. It actively contributes to the development of FIDO specifications and has released a number of products compliant with the standards. This includes a FIDO Certified™ USB Token reference design and security controllers used by manufacturers of FIDO Ready™ authentication devices.
“The growing number and size of new eco systems is driving the complexity of multi-factor authentication,” said Joerg Borchert, Vice President of the Chip Card and Security Division at Infineon Technologies Americas Corp. “A major part of the challenge in overcoming complexity is to agree on ways to verify and protect identity online. With active participation by leaders from multiple business segments, the FIDO Alliance is succeeding in its mission of making the connected world safer for both businesses and consumers by assuring that security measures are easy to use.”
“This has been an exciting year for the FIDO Alliance, as leading global companies in the online services ecosystem have stepped up their commitments to advancing strong authentication,” said Brett McDowell, executive director of the FIDO Alliance. “Infineon has been a valuable contributor to the Alliance mission since we started our work more than three years ago and we are pleased to have their security expertise added to the board.”
