FIDO Alliance Welcomes Leading Technology Company ARM to the Board of Directors to Help Deliver a Secure World Beyond Passwords

CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM and MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 22, 2014) - The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, the industry consortium revolutionizing secure online authentication, has announced that ARM, the world's leading semiconductor design company, has joined the Board of Directors. The FIDO Alliance Board comprises some of the world's most influential corporations including Microsoft, Google, Bank of America and Samsung.

The Alliance brings members together with the aim of creating simple, strong authentication based on industry standards that are ideally suited to emerging methods such as biometrics and trusted user interfaces.

"We are very excited to welcome ARM to the FIDO Alliance Board of Directors. As FIDO Alliance membership now exceeds 100 participants, ARM is moving from sponsor to board membership, taking on an important leadership role within the FIDO ecosystem," said Michael Barrett, president of the FIDO Alliance. "Next developments in FIDO authentication will prove critical to accelerating adoption of strong authentication that can move us beyond the confines of password dependencies. ARM's leadership in many global markets can measurably facilitate interoperability among authentication methods, which is foundational to the FIDO Alliance's objectives."

"ARM is supportive of FIDO's vision of a world beyond passwords and our security architecture can help to turn that into reality," says Rob Coombs, director of security marketing, ARM. "As a board member we want to push for the universal adoption of FIDO authentication as it will allow people to securely connect to the services they care about in a frictionless way that links multiple web-based services with a diverse range of devices.

Rob continues: "Biometrics are already being used to authorize financial transactions from a smartphone, and it's easy to see how technology such as an ARM^® TrustZone^® technology-based Trusted Execution Environment can be used with FIDO standards to move beyond passwords into a world where authentication methods are interoperable. The key is ensuring that embedded security builds on appropriate hardware and software that is well integrated so it's fit for purpose and cost-effective."

ARM has been developing secure technology for the mobile market for many years and its TrustZone-based Trusted Execution Environment is now embedded in hundreds of millions of smart connected devices. It runs separately from the main operating system and enhances endpoint security, enabling new services such as pay-as-you-go premium content on any screen, with fast and secure website logins, simple and secure payment and banking. It is designed to enhance the user experience and protect against malicious attacks in an integrated and cost-effective way.

About The FIDO Alliance

The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, 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 Alliance plans to change the nature of authentication by developing standards-based specifications 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. 

The FIDO Alliance Board of Directors includes leading global organizations: ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM) (NASDAQ: ARMH); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); BlackBerry®; CrucialTec (KRX: 114120); Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS); Google; IdentityX; Lenovo; MasterCard (NYSE: MA); Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT); Nok Nok Labs, Inc.; NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI); Oberthur Technologies OT; PayPal (NASDAQ: EBAY); RSA®; Samsung Electronics, Ltd (KOSCOM: SECL); Synaptics (NASDAQ: SYNA); Yubico.

About ARM
ARM is at the heart of the world's most advanced digital products. Our technology enables the creation of new markets and transformation of industries and society. We design scalable, energy efficient-processors and related technologies to deliver the intelligence in applications ranging from sensors to servers, including smartphones, tablets, enterprise infrastructure and the Internet of Things.

Our innovative technology is licensed by ARM Partners who have shipped more than 50 billion Systems on Chip (SoCs) containing our intellectual property since the company began in 1990. Together with our Connected Community, we are breaking down barriers to innovation for developers, designers and engineers, ensuring a fast, reliable route to market for leading electronics companies. Learn more and join the conversation at http://community.arm.com.

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