W3C: WebAuthn Becomes Official Web StandardWeb Standard for Secure, Passwordless Logins

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the FIDO Alliance recently announced that Web Authentication (WebAuthn) is now the official Web standard. WebAuthn was announced by the W3C and Fido Alliance in November 2015 and is now an open standard for Passwordless login. It is supported by W3C contributors, including Airbnb, Alibaba, Apple, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, PayPal, Softbank, Tencent, and Yubico.

Image: w3

WebAuthn allows users to log in to an online account using biometrics, mobile devices, or FIDO security keys instead of typing a string of characters in the account password box. WebAuthn is already supported on Android and Windows 10. On the browser side, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge browsers have implemented WebAuthn support last year. Since December last year, Apple has supported WebAuthn in the preview version of Safari.

W3C CEO, Jeff Jaffe said,

Now is the time for web services and businesses to adopt WebAuthn to move beyond vulnerable passwords and help web users improve the security of their online experiences. Now is the time for web services and businesses to adopt WebAuthn to move beyond vulnerable passwords and help web users improve the security of their online experiences.