Phil Dunkelberger Discusses FIDO and Secure Authentication

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Inner Circle Podcast Episode 032

My guest for this episode of the Inner Circle podcast is Phil Dunkelberger, President and CEO of Nok Nok Labs. We chat about the history and current state of secure authentication and the role the FIDO (Fast ID Online) standard can play in streamlining and simplifying secure access.

Authentication is an integral part of technology. Whether you are connecting to a company email server, shopping on Amazon, chatting with your cousin over Facebook Messenger, or logging in to Netflix to binge watch the new season of Stranger Things, there has to be some way for the persons and systems on the other end of that transaction to verify that you are who you say you are and to limit your access to only those things you are legitimately authorized to access.

Usernames and passwords have been obsolete pretty much since they were invented, and yet they’re still here. Bill Gates promised the death of the password 15 years ago, and yet it’s still here. Passwords are exposed and compromised in data breaches almost daily, and yet they remain the dominant form of authentication.

Technology is finally catching up with the vision for better authentication, though, and a standard like FIDO helps the concept gain traction and become the mainstream default. Things like Windows Hello and FaceID facial recognition, fingerprint sensors on mobile phones, or using the phone itself as a hardware token to verify identity and grant access, we finally seem to be moving the needle a little–but there’s a long way to go  yet before the password can officially be declared dead.

Check out the podcast episode and comment below to share your thoughts or ask questions.