Nok Nok Labs has formally welcomed Apple to the FIDO Alliance. The greeting confirms a news story that broke earlier in the week, which indicated that Apple had not only joined the Alliance, but would be taking on a leadership role as a member of the board.

As one of the original co-founders of the FIDO Alliance, Nok Nok’s words carry more weight than some of the other members. The company framed Apple’s membership as a sign of progress, an indication that FIDO’s strong authentication standards are rapidly becoming the norm for the entire industry.    

“To have Apple join FIDO is a testament to our original vision of enabling strong authentication across all platforms,” said Nok Nok CEO Phillip Dunkelberger. “It’s incredibly rewarding to have the world’s largest and most successful browser manufacturers, banks, telcos, and healthcare providers join the movement we started in 2013.”

“Apple joining this alliance is an important signal,” added Nok Nok Advisory Board Member Richard Clarke. “It’s a step in the responsible direction for corporations and the customers whose data they are responsible for protecting.”

Nok Nok went on to suggest that Apple’s membership could lead to better FIDO integrations for Apple’s Safari web browser, and enable FIDO logins with Face ID and Touch ID. It also validates Nok Nok’s consistent support for Apple over the years. For example, Nok Nok was one of the first companies to speak up in support of Apple Pay when it debuted in 2014.

More recently, Nok Nok updated its S3 Authentication Suite to make it compatible with Safari, and released a new smart watch SDK that will bring FIDO authentication to Apple’s watchOS. Both events attest to Apple’s increasingly close relationship with the Alliance.

In the meantime, Nok Nok has continued to be one of the leading advocates for passwordless authentication protocols. BBVA and YOUNIQX have both adopted the S3 Authentication Suite to improve their digital security in the past few months.