Microsoft has officially announced that FIDO2-based web authentication has come to its Edge browser.
First announced this April, the FIDO Alliance’s latest authentication standard features a core component called WebAuthn API. It’s designed to empower users of web browsers with convenient and highly secure authentication options, including facial recognition, a fingerprint scan on a paired smartphone, or a USB security key.
At the time of FIDO2’s announcement, the FIDO Alliance indicated that major partners including Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft were working to incorporate web authentication into their browsers. Now, Microsoft says that build 17723 of its Microsoft Edge browser supports web authentication via Windows Hello – Windows 10’s biometric security platform supporting facial and fingerprint recognition – and through FIDO2 security keys, which can also be used together with a password for websites that don’t yet support passwordless authentication.
To be clear, this isn’t large-scale support for FIDO2 web authentication. The functionality has been implemented in a kind of preview version of Microsoft Edge for developers. But that’s a key step forward, and in a blog post announcing the new functionality, Microsoft said that it’s “working with industry partners on lighting up the first passwordless experiences around the web.”
In other words, widespread support is coming, which means a great deal of end users will soon get to sign into web apps with their faces, fingerprints, or USB keys.
Source: Microsoft Edge Developer
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August 1, 2018 – by Alex Perala
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