Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director & CMO, FIDO Alliance
At its WWDC, Apple detailed that its upcoming release of Safari in iOS and MacOS 14 will enable users to use Touch ID and Face ID for web logins, and we couldn’t be happier. It marks a giant step forward in the industry’s quest to move beyond passwords in favor of cryptographically secure authentication based on FIDO standards.
The functionality, based on the WebAuthn API in the FIDO2 standard, will make logging in to a website as easy as it is to unlock your iPhone or iPad using whichever biometric option is available. Apple’s built-in support in its stock web browser means that every modern device platform now has built-in FIDO support, which furthers our aim of making FIDO Authentication as ubiquitous as other critical internet protocols.
To that end, we’ve recently provided a resource that shows the latest progress for FIDO support across browsers and platforms. This image (shown below) is permanently hosted on our WebAuthn resources page.
It’s been really cool to watch this diagram grow both wider (adding in the Apple operating systems) and greener over the past 12 months or so since Apple ramped up its FIDO support. This rapid maturation and support for WebAuthn is accelerating adoption; with over 85 percent of today’s browsers now supporting FIDO Authentication, many service providers are now actively working to deploy FIDO to their customers worldwide.
The FIDO Alliance was founded on a singular mission: To eliminate dependence on passwords by creating and driving adoption of open standards for simpler, stronger user authentication. Today, we’re closer to reaching that audacious goal that the FIDO ecosystem has been working on for the past several years. Thanks, Apple!
