StrongKey Announces Passwordless Single Sign-on to Extend the Value of Its Open Source FIDO Server

CUPERTINO, Calif., March 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- StrongKey, the leader in open source authentication and encryption solutions, announced the availability of single sign-on (SSO) capabilities as a value-added extension to the StrongKey FIDO Server (SKFS). This new feature takes advantage of passwordless strong authentication without the need for a dedicated SSO platform and protocol.

Traditionally, enterprises have integrated SSO platforms distinctly from their authentication solutions, which not only raises complexity, but also the total cost of ownership (TCO) of managing authentication risk vs. convenience. With the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standardizing FIDO, a royalty-free protocol and API delivering one of the best user experiences, enterprises no longer have to continue with legacy SSO infrastructure as they upgrade their web and mobile applications to leverage FIDO.

"FIDO strong authentication is a critical part of any strategy to secure the supply chain," said Joe Veranese, Vice President and CIO of the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM). "StrongKey's integration of single sign-on and policy management into their FIDO server platform continues to make the case for enterprises migrating away from old password and common access card (CAC) authentication technologies."

StrongKey's open source FIDO® Certified FIDO2 Server enables SSO without the need for an external SSO platform, significantly reducing cost and improving manageability. The new SSO capability within SKFS is designed for businesses of all sizes that want to migrate away from less secure authentication technologies, such as passwords, one-time PINs (OTPs), and knowledge based authentication.

With StrongKey's March 2021 update to the SKFS, instead of merely returning a traditional "Yes/No" response to business applications authenticating their users, SKFS now returns a digitally signed JSON Web Token (JWT) that can be verified by applications before permitting users to access application resources. StrongKey is also providing a Java-based JWT Verification Library (JVL) that applications may integrate with this release. It is part of StrongKey's roadmap to provide JVLs in additional languages later this year.

StrongKey Tellaro enables CIOs and chief security information officers (CISOs) to:

• Reduce the cost of SSO by eliminating SSO per-user fees of $2 to $8 per month
• Improve manageability of FIDO strong authentication with policy-based management tools
• Migrate away from shared secrets (insecure passwords, OTP, and KBA schemes) with FIDO passwordless authentication
• Eliminate 100% of password phishing attacks
• Implement a consistent passwordless authentication method across PC, Android, and Apple devices
• Comply with NIST authentication requirements for hardware-based security
• Significantly lower the cost secure authentication by using open source software with no licensing, transaction, or per-user fees

StrongKey Tellaro is a physical appliance that provides strong authentication, tokenization, encryption, and PKI management backed by a FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (standard) or Level 3 (optional) cryptographic hardware module. StrongKey Tellaro, which includes an open source FIDO® Certified FIDO2 Server, now supports the following additional features:

• Built-in Single Sign-on (SSO) capability for web applications hosted across multiple DNS domains
• Java-based JWT Verification Library to enable web applications to verify the JWT
• Security Policy Module that permits an enterprise—a.k.a. relying party (RP)—to define and update FIDO security policies without having to modify their web applications

StrongKey also provides an open source software-only version of the StrongKey FIDO Server,  available for download for free on GitHub and SourceForge.

For more information on the StrongKey solutions and support services, visit www.strongkey.com/fido.

About StrongKey
StrongKey is the leading provider of open-source strong authentication and encryption solutions. Founded in 2001, StrongKey helps Fintech, enterprise, manufacturers, and e-commerce companies protect their systems and data. StrongKey Tellaro is a comprehensive software solution that provides FIDO-based authentication, tokenization, encryption, PKI management, and key management. Unlike other security solutions, StrongKey provides its open-source licensed software without transaction or per-user fees, making it a cost-effective security solution. StrongKey's Tellaro appliance uses FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (standard) and Level 3 (optional) validated cryptographic hardware modules to secure the generation, use, and storage of cryptographic keys to comply with US Federal regulations. www.strongkey.com

SOURCE StrongKey