FIDO Alliance Teams With India PKI Forum to Drive Strong Authentication and Security Standards

BANGALORE and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The FIDO Alliance, an industry consortium developing open, interoperable authentication standards, today announced a mutual liaison relationship with India PKI Forum. The two organizations will collaborate to help make India's citizens, international customers, businesses and IT infrastructures more secure and e-ready with FIDO Authentication. FIDO standards and FIDO Certified solutions enable globally interoperable, public key cryptography- based, strong authentication for login security and digital signatures.

Ashok Chandak, the co-chair for the FIDO India Working Group, will present 'FIDO Story Emphasizing Enhanced Privacy and User Experience' at the India PKI Forum Symposium - 2018. The mutual liaison agreement was signed off and announced at this event in New Delhi.  

The two organizations have agreed to work together on promoting FIDO's standards and best practices for strong authentication, alongside outputs from the India PKI Forum. Such technologies will provide better security for both clients and businesses as they expand online services such as income tax, passports, company law, e-procurement, bidding and government social services. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) forms the backbone of digital trust for all these services; FIDO's standards-based ecosystem - the world's largest - makes it easier for people to use and businesses to deploy related solutions.

"In recent years, the government's farsighted initiatives have emphasized paperless, cashless and presence-less services, and encouraged policies and innovations around these goals. This effort is helping make India one of the world's leading password-less ecosystems," said Mr. V. Srinivasan, chairman of India PKI Forum and founder and chairman of eMudhra Limited. "This joint initiative will help us accelerate the adoption and use of PKI applications and digital signature certificates, and facilitate interoperability through multi-vendor testing of industry standards and educational outreach-both key missions of our organization."

India PKI Forum (IPKI) is a non-profit organization sponsored by the Government of India's Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) within the Ministry of Information Technology. IPKI Forum serves as an Indian information resource for PKI and an advocate for industry cooperation and market awareness. This enables organizations to understand and embrace the value of PKI in applications relevant to their businesses. India PKI Forum is also an active member of the Asia PKI Consortium, which is a non-government organization headquartered in Hong Kong.

"With support from the leading digital economy platforms and service providers, FIDO Authentication has reached the tipping point in its adoption curve," said Ashok Chandak, co-chair of FIDO Alliance India Working Group and senior director of global sales and marketing at NXP Semiconductors. "With W3C's recent WebAuthn spec and support commitments from leading web browsers will help ensure FIDO's near ubiquitous availability worldwide, including India. These advantages mesh perfectly with the India PKI Forum's and the government's mutual goal to accelerate the adoption and use of PKI applications and digital signature certificates."

About India PKI Consortium 

India PKI Forum (IPKI) is a non-profit organization aimed at bringing technology and service providers, integrators and end-users together to accelerate the adoption and use of PKI applications and digital signature certificates, as well as to facilitate interoperability through multi-vendor testing of industry standards and educational outreach. Sponsored by Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India, IPKI Forum serves as an Indian information resource for PKI and advocates cooperation and market awareness, enabling organizations to understand and exploit the value of PKI in applications relevant to their businesses. India PKI Forum is also an active member of the Asia PKI Consortium which is a non-government organization headquartered in Hong Kong.

About The FIDO Alliance
The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, http://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.

Media Contact:
Gaurav Punjabi
[email protected]
+91-9900919234
Program Manager
FIDO Alliance