1Kosmos BlockID Becomes the First Contact-Free Identity Based Authentication System Powered by Biometrics & Blockchain to Be FIDO2 Certified

BlockID represents a true paradigm shift by bringing identity-based authentication to FIDO in place of hope-based authentication.

1Kosmos, the next-generation contact-free authentication solution, today announced it has been certified by the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance for the FIDO2 server protocol. FIDO2 combines the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Authentication specification (WebAuthn) and FIDO Alliance’s corresponding Client-to-Authenticator Protocol (CTAP), to accelerate the industry’s shift away from passwords by allowing common devices to securely and easily authenticate in both mobile and desktop environments.

The FIDO2 standard lacks details about how a user can be identified when the authentication process takes place. BlockID fills that gap by verifying a user’s identity, prior to providing passwordless authentication powered by advanced biometrics.

“Now, with our platform being FIDO2 certified, BlockID adds tremendous value to the passwordless world by adding the immutable identity layer on top of authenticating tokens. This certification allows us to provide our customers safer, phishing-resistant methods and a better user experience enterprise wide,” said Rohan Pinto, 1Kosmos’s Chief Technology Officer.

BlockID creates a paradigm shift by bringing identity-based authentication to FIDO by proofing a user identity and reaching IAL3 per the NIST 800-63-3 guidelines, making impersonation impossible and giving away or sharing purposely credentials a worthless enterprise. The costs of deploying 2FA and MFA solutions that require hardware is eliminated. BlockID is an app installed on the user’s smartphone that gives physical and logical access to whoever authenticates successfully. Finally distributed ledger technology is immune to hacking. Therefore, the potentiality of a data breach is eliminated. This is why BlockID leverages this technology to securely store users’ identity information encrypted, with access controlled by the user (GDPR compliant).

About 1Kosmos

1Kosmos is a leader in the passwordless authentication industry. The company’s flagship product, BlockID, is the next generation contact-free authentication solution, powered by advanced biometrics and Blockchain technology. BlockID offers the highest levels of identity and authentication assurance in the market for the workforce and customers. The company is headquartered in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with development offices in Mumbai, India.

About the FIDO Alliance

The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, www.fidoalliance.org, was formed in July 2012 to address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication technologies and remedy the problems users face with creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords. The FIDO Alliance is changing the nature of authentication with standards for simpler, stronger authentication that define an open, scalable, interoperable set of mechanisms that reduce reliance on passwords. FIDO authentication is stronger, private, and easier to use when authenticating to online services.

For more information, visit 1kosmos.com or follow @1KosmosBlockID on Twitter and @1kosmos on Linked.