When it comes to securing your business systems, one of the technologies that you should definitely consider implementing is FIDO2 biometric authentication. In this digital world that we live in, protecting confidential information is very important, and doing this with traditional passwords and keys is so difficult. The passwords and PINs no longer provide enough security to ensure data is kept out of the hands of hackers and unauthorized individuals. Below, we look at some of the ways that you can benefit from using biometric security in your business.

While passwords can work in some cases, they are not enough. With the rise in security breaches in recent years, so many organizations believed that two-factor authentication (2FA) would be the answer. Whether to access a smartphone or server room, some technology experts reasoned that two passwords are better compared to just one. Even though this logic is solid, the simple truth is that two-factor authentication is built on a weak foundation due to the fact that there is still a reliance on passwords.

A lot of people use the same common characters repeatedly for their passwords. Since entering in password information is a very tedious and monotonous activity, many people prefer to rely on common phrases or birthdays as a way of simplifying the process. Because of this, the result is that the level of security achieved by 2FA is not enough.

Even two factor authentication that makes use of physical tokens has not been successful enough in making authentication practices foolproof. In order to use a 2FA token for authentication, you need to type your passwords and plug your hardware tokens into a device to enter an additional code. This takes a lot of time, and if a token happens to be stolen, the thief can potentially use it to access sensitive information. FIDO2 biometric authentication is a much more effective way to prove identity.

If you are not yet using passwordless authentication UX in your business, it is something that you should definitely consider giving a try. Passwordless authentication replaces traditional multifactor authentication’s weak factors with significantly stronger ones. As a result, a passwordless authentication solution can improve security as well as the user experience by removing friction from the login process.

Passwordless authentication is just that: a form of authentication that doesn’t use a password, ever. Passwords are not used as an alternative authentication method or even as a backup in this method. Even if antiquated systems such as Microsoft Active Directory require passwords, passwords are not used to authenticate, nor are they stored in a password vault or manager.

This is a very crucial point to understand, since some technology providers claims that their authentication solutions are passwordless when in real sense they are not. They continue to use passwords as a backup, so anyone can use that password to get in. In such a case, you are still vulnerable to password-based attacks.

The whole idea behind passwordless authentication UX is to use an authentication method that is more secure. A password is a knowledge factor. It is not much of an improvement if you replace a password with another, just as insecure knowledge factor.

When you switch to using passwordless authentication in your business, there are a number of benefits you will get. One of them is the fact that this technology can help prevent account takeovers from credential attacks. Removing passwords as an authentication method can eliminate all password-based attacks. Attackers simply cannot be able to use passwords to login since they do not exist.

Passwordless authentication can protect against login credentials being stolen or leaked in credential cracking, credential stuffing, rainbow table attacks, social engineering, ransomware via RDP, as well as phishing attacks.

Machine learning plays a very crucial role in effective fraud prevention systems. This technology can significantly improve the ability of your business to stop fraud attacks. Customers want to have the assurance that they can buy products without experiencing a false decline, and merchants want to feel that they can trust the legitimacy of new incoming transactions. The following are some of the key benefits to using machine learning in ecommerce fraud prevention.

First of all, using machine learning to stop fraud attacks from impacting your ecommerce business means that there is no impediment to the customer journey. If you rely on manual transaction review to identify and stop fraud, chances are you deal with a high volume of false declines. Consumers that have orders declined as a result of suspected fraudulent activity will almost never return to buy from that retailer. So you need to work to minimize false declines as much as possible.

With the help of machine learning, fraud prevention solutions can accurately determine the legitimacy of a transaction without causing any unnecessary friction during the checkout process. This can reduce false declines significantly, resulting in a smoother customer journey and quicker checkout experience.

Another benefit of using machine learning to stop fraud attacks from impacting your ecommerce business is reduced operational costs. This technology can effectively eliminate the need for manual transaction review. If you currently use a team of fraud analysts to review suspicious transactions, you should consider investing in an ecommerce fraud prevention solution that will perform that job quicker and more accurately. You should not let operational costs associated with fraud cut into the bottom line of business. When you use a fraud solution that leverages machine learning, it can significantly reduce your operational costs and eliminate the possibility of human error.

If you have never thought of using delegated authentication, it is something that you should definitely consider. Delegated authentication is similar to single sign-on (SSO), with the difference being that it offers a slightly different experience to users. With delegated authentication, one system relies on another system to validate user credentials. For instance, you can configure your Salesforce org to rely on a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server to validate credentials. Both single sign-on and delegated authentication enable users to log in to multiple apps with one set of credentials, but with delegated authentication, users are supposed to log in to each app separately.  

Delegated authentication has a lot of benefits to merchants, issuers, and cardholders.   Merchants benefit from this technology in the ability to control all aspects of the customer’s payment journey and prevent cart abandonment. Equally important, the merchants can shift the liability to the issuer if the authentication is FIDO compliant.

As for issuers, they are relieved of the need to manage certification of consumer wallets and devices, as this is done by the networks. Issuers also get visibility of security and functional measures taken by the authenticator ensuring SCA and PSD2.

Cardholders will start to experience a more consistent authentication process with this technology, not only for payments, but also access to bank accounts. As merchants adopt FIDO, cardholders will no longer experience two authentications: one at the account level and one at the payment level. As biometrics proliferate, delegated authentication will eliminate passwords across all validators.

With delegated authentication, card networks make it possible for merchants to control the entire cardholder experience. Issuers reduce costs while consumers can use biometrics for online shopping, and passwords slowly fade away. Also, qualified merchants can use their own authentication process to approve purchases or pass the cardholder’s FIDO-based credential to the network for approval.

With the popularity of FIDO2 passwordless authentication continuing to rise every day, you may be considering using it in your business. This standard uses public-key cryptography to guarantee a secure and convenient authentication system. The FIDO2 standard uses a private and public key to validate the identity of each user to achieve this. To use FIDO2 authentication, you will first have to sign up for it at FIDO2 supported sites.

The most significant advantage of FIDO2 passwordless authentication is the fact that it creates a much smaller attack window for cybercriminals. In order to access your sensitive private information, attackers will need a FIDO2 token, which is physically always by your side in the form of your device.

If you use several FIDO2 supported sites, then you can enjoy another advantage in the form of a more streamlined experience, because you will not have to remember multiple login details and passwords for each of your accounts. The FIDO2 U2F security key will work across the board for all supported platforms and offer maximum security as well as user comfort.

While FIDO2 passwordless authentication can benefit your organization in major ways, it also has disadvantages. Of course, like any other security method in the world, this standard has certain drawbacks. These drawbacks are not deal-breakers, but instead they are something you should be aware of if you are planning to implement the FIDO2 passwordless login as a security practice.

Most notably, FIDO2 authentication requires an additional security step compared to traditional password login standards if you use it as a regular component of 2FA. With that in mind, such a system is not the most practical one if you log into more FIDO2 enabled websites a number of times each day.

With FIDO2 passwordless authentication becoming a common thing these days, you may be wondering if it is something that you can give a try. Without doubt, passwordless security is something that’s worth investing your money in and basing your cybersecurity on. As the name suggests, passwordless authentication, or password-free authentication, does not require users to input passwords to complete the verification process. Instead, all they need to do is provide another form of evidence that authenticates their identity, such as a secret PIN, a one-time password (OTP), an SMS- or app-generated code, a PKI-based (public key infrastructure) personal authentication certificate, or biometrics to complete the authentication process.

While a lot of people love using passwords, the problem with them is that hackers can steal or guess them using brute force attacks. Hackers can also purchase lists of breached passwords on the dark web or acquire them using malware. So, if you are a business owner and would to secure your data and systems, you can deploy passwordless authentication tools on your applications, websites, software, and office devices to strengthen the security posture and provide a convenient login experience to your customers and employees.

Of course there are many advantages of implementing passwordless technology. One of them is improved user experience. Studies show that the average user has 70 to 80 passwords. As you can imagine, it is so difficult for an average person to create a challenging password, let alone memorize 80 unique passwords. The good thing is that with passwordless authentication, users do not need to brainstorm to set and memorize strong passwords. There are no more password memorizations needed at all with this technology.

Without doubt, the application of PSD2 Strong Customer Authentication standards across the European Union in 2021 brought some growing pains with it for issuers, acquirers, merchants as well as customers, notably added friction in the payment process. The good news is that delegated authentication is making leaps and bounds as an alternative to traditional long-winded authentication processes. It helps grow trust between merchants and issuers, and as a result it is helping bring a shift in previously rigid authentication processes, leading to faster checkout and less friction for customers.

The revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2) entered into effect in the year 2016 with the goal of strengthening the EU online payment network and encouraging competition among PSPs. As a result, Strong Customer Authentication standards became applicable, aimed at reducing fraudulent online transactions. These became binding for a lot of European countries in 2021, causing payment players to scramble to put stronger authentication measures into place, usually accompanied by migrating to EMV 3-D Secure protocols.

However, these additional security measures led to friction in the payment process by adding extra steps for the customer, first to enroll in Strong Customer Authentication and then perform strong customer authentication. As Kurt Schmid says, ‘Every extra step is a step where you might lose the customer on the journey’. Since customers don’t always understand this extra measure, it can sometimes lead to them abandoning the purchase and result into a lower rate of successful transactions.

Using delegated authentication can help simplify the process. In the traditional payment flow, authentication is carried out by the issuer. Using delegated authentication can allow the merchant to directly authenticate the customer, skipping the redirection to the issuer and facilitating the ‘one-click purchase’ experience. A lot of customers are likely to make purchases more often when the payment process is simplified using delegated authentication, leading to higher conversion rates.

You have probably heard of delegated authentication and are wondering if it is something that you can use in your business to improve the security of your data and systems. Delegated authentication is quite similar to single sign-on (SSO), but it offers a slightly different experience to users. With this authentication system, one system relies on another system to validate user credentials. For instance, you can configure your website to rely on a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server to validate credentials.

Both single sign-on and delegated authentication enable users to log in to multiple apps with one set of credentials. But with delegated authentication, users are supposed to log in to each app separately.

You need to set up delegated authentication so that users can log in to your website with credentials managed by an external authentication method wrapped in a web service. When a user tries to log in to your website, they will first need to validate their credentials. With delegated authentication, you have no control over the passwords that are used to log in to your system. Instead, the external authentication method controls user passwords as well as the associated policies.

You can use any authentication method provided that you wrap it in a web service that your system can consume. For instance, you can use a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server as your authentication method and wrap it in a SOAP-based web service. Once you integrate the authentication backend with your system, you can use permissions to control which users log in with delegated authentication rather than with user credentials.

With delegated authentication, you can provide a consistent and low friction checkout experience to drive down cart abandonment and increase revenue.