Posted on Thursday, February 19 2015 @ 14:19 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Microsoft is working on ways to give the next version of Windows stronger authentication methods. Super Site for Windows
writes the software giant will adopt the FIDO 2.0 standard, which aims to replace the old password-based authentication with hardware-based authentication:
FIDO 2.0 is a specification put forth by an organization seeking to become a standards body, the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance. The idea behind the specification is that authentication through passwords will go away and be replaced by hardware-based authentication. New hardware components will be able to utilize things like eye scanning, face recognition, fingerprint acknowledgement, voice recognition, and others to authorize use of computers, devices, and Cloud services. Microsoft is working to embed the capabilities into Windows 10 for both Cloud-based accounts and accounts stored in on-premises Active Directory.
Eliminating passwords is a worthy cause, considering that most business users can't be bothered to create strong passwords, and executives continually share them with secretaries, or keep stick them to credenzas with Post-Its in clear view. The historical problem of eliminating passwords, though, has been poor adoption due to complexity and difficult solutions. However, one of FIDO's main tenants is to simplify authentication and make it much easier to use.
