Are you struggling to keep track of dozens of passwords for your numerous online accounts? You are not alone. In this modern world where increasingly more transactions are conducted online, password overload, as well as password anxiety, is very real.

After all, the average Internet user easily has more than 50 online accounts – think of all the apps and services you have subscribed to, including those you never accessed again because you cannot remember the password you’ve set before.

According to a recent research from NordPass, the average user has a whopping 100 passwords, 25% more than they did before the Covid-19 pandemic began!

NordPass believes that users may have downloaded more apps or signed up for new services during the lockdown and this could account for the increase in passwords.

Remembering all our online account details can be very difficult. It is rather tedious to repeatedly come up with unique passwords that comply with the complexity required – such as minimum eight characters with at least one special character and one cap… and then they need to be constantly changed! Understandably, many users resort to reusing passwords, and opt to save passwords on their browsers for convenience’s sake, despite knowing the vulnerability of doing so.

According to the FIDO Alliance, up to 51% of passwords are reused. No thanks to improper management of passwords, passwords are the root cause of over 80% of data breaches!

Forgotten passwords are also costing organisations – one-third of online purchases are abandoned due to forgotten passwords, and it cost an average of US$70 in helpdesk labour cost for a single password reset.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to do away with passwords entirely?

Driving the world to move beyond passwords is a global collaboration of tech heavyweights – the FIDO Alliance. Leading organisations around the world have deployed FIDO authentication to their employees and users, reducing their security risks and improving user experience.

Gartner predicted passwordless authentication to be among the most influential technologies in cybersecurity within the next three years.

In Malaysia, we have our own homegrown VFIDO, South-east Asia’s first Virtual FIDO-certified authenticator. Imagine the enhanced ease and digital security of using VFIDO to login to Facebook, Instagram, Gmail, dropbox, Office 365, PayPal, and every other account you have!

What is FIDO?

FIDO, or Fast Identity Online, is a consortium of the world’s leading technology companies that are dedicated to revolutionise the prevailing online authentication system. The FIDO Alliance Board of Directors is an all-star line-up of global tech leaders, service providers, and solution vendors. They include Amazon, American Express, Google, ING, Intel, LINE, Mastercard, Microsoft, Paypal, and Samsung.

Based on free and open standards from the FIDO Alliance, FIDO Authentication enables password-only logins to be replaced with secure and fast login experiences across websites and apps. It is applicable across markets, be it enterprises, financial services and payments, telcos, governments, and healthcare and insurance.

Over 600 interoperable products have been FIDO certified.

How does FIDO work?

The FIDO protocols use standard public key cryptography techniques to provide stronger authentication. During registration with an online service, the user’s client device creates a new key pair. It retains the private key and registers the public key with the online service. Authentication is done by the client device proving possession of the private key to the service by signing a challenge. The client’s private keys can be used only after they are unlocked locally on the device by the user. The local unlock is accomplished by a user–friendly and secure action such as swiping a finger, entering a PIN, speaking into a microphone, inserting a second–factor device, or pressing a button.

The FIDO protocols are designed from the ground up to protect user privacy. The protocols do not provide information that can be used by different online services to collaborate and track a user across the services. Biometric information, if used, never leaves the user’s device.

For more information on FIDO and how it works, click here.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could use just one FIDO authenticator for all websites and applications?

VFIDO, South-east Asia’s first Virtual FIDO-certified authenticator

VFIDO, or Virtual FIDO, is a 100% in-house innovation by Securemetric Bhd, a homegrown digital solutions provider that caters to niche cyber and digital security products and offerings, with a global presence and international clients.

VFIDO cryptographic login credentials are unique across every website and application. And the best part, you won’t be paying for the hardware and logistic because instead of a physical token, you can download VFIDO directly to your mobile phone. With VFIDO, you can login with biometric or facial recognition, configuration that can never be altered – 100% secure login is guaranteed.

Imagine the extent to which you can enhance your digital security by using VFIDO to login to facebook, Instagram, gmail, dropbox, Office 365, PayPal, and every other account you have!

VFIDO is set to launch as a freeware by end of March and you can start using VFIDO right away.

With VFIDO, you can enjoy a password-free life without worrying over data protection and security threats.