The FIDO Alliance has wrapped up its second Asia Pacific Marketing Forum. In doing so, the organization has recapped some of the new initiatives that countries in the region have implemented as they work to reduce their reliance on passwords.
In that regard, FIDO noted that the remote environment that emerged in the wake of COVID-19 has created an urgent need for better digital authentication options. A recent FIDO survey found that the majority (58 percent) of abandoned online purchases can be attributed to people’s frustrations with passwords, while Gartner has reported that roughly a quarter of all help desk calls are requests for password resets.
With that in mind, FIDO is highlighting the steps that APAC operators are taking toward a post-password society. The government of Taiwan, for example, now offers FIDO authentication for its citizen tax filing service, while India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology now accepts FIDO2 as an alternative to SMS OTP for Controller of Certifying Authorities authentication. The Reserve Bank of India’s ReBIT cybersecurity subsidiary has also adopted Singular Key’s FIDO-certified authentication service.
In Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Jockey Club used Tradelink’s passwordless technology to secure its mobile betting app, while the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region used that same technology in its “iAM Smart” initiative to give people mobile access to financial services. The Tradelink platform leverages the biometric authentication options available on a user’s own mobile device, and is realized through an IdentityX partnership with Daon.
The story was similar in Malaysia, where the Malaysia Financial Data Exchange recognized FIDO2 in its updated open finance standards, and several government agencies (including the Central Bank and the Ministry of Science) are implementing SecureMetric’s FIDO authentication service in an effort to improve their cybersecurity posture. Meanwhile VinCSS is the first company to develop FIDO2-certified authenticators in Vietnam, and is also one of only 13 companies globally to receive FIDO2 certification for a strong authentication server.
Finally, LINE enabled biometric authentication for people using its instant messaging service on an iPad, while Korea’s Blue House adopted TrustKey’s security keys to strengthen its login procedures. The first APAC Marketing Forum took place in July.
Follow Us