Nymi Band™, the standards-based workplace wearable, is now certified as a FIDO2 authenticator. As a member of the FIDO Alliance since 2014, Nymi designed the solution to be compliant with FIDO2 from the ground up and has always been committed to the use of safe, secure, and simple authentication. This certification further deepens that commitment.
Certification was achieved by leveraging the security and privacy of Nymi’s solution to meet the requirements of the FIDO Alliance, providing passwordless access to a variety of third-party applications. With this announcement, any compatible solution and application can use FIDO2 functionality in the Nymi Connected Worker Platform (CWP). Out of the box, this enables a passwordless experience, making the Nymi Band a strong and secure passwordless authentication option.
The Nymi Band is a secure, convenient, hands-free, and private solution for logging into enterprise systems, networks, data, applications, and devices with continuous biometric authentication — without any need to enter credentials such as a username and password or to touch a surface in any given environment. Once a user has authenticated, they can use the Nymi Band as an NFC FIDO authenticator. By leveraging the Nymi Band's continuous authentication, every FIDO transaction can be verified. This prevents unauthorized actors from using the authenticator in cases where a PIN code has been shared or obtained through malicious means. In addition to using Nymi this way, the CWP supports additional use cases such as secure, physical access, social distancing and contact tracing, touchless print solutions, and more – all from one simple and hands free user experience.
FIDO2 enables users to leverage common devices to easily authenticate to online services in both mobile and desktop environments. The core concepts driving FIDO protocols are 1) Ease of Use, 2) Privacy and Security, and 3) Standardization. Similar to Nymi’s solution pillars (Privacy, Security, and Natural UX), FIDO protocols are designed from the ground up to protect user privacy. The protocols do not provide information that different online services could use to collaborate and track a user across services, and biometric information, if used, never leaves the user’s device.
How the Nymi Band works as a FIDO2 authenticator:
As a FIDO2 authenticator, the Nymi Band:
- Provides passwordless and two-factor authentication for web applications and services that support FIDO2. The Nymi Band’s continuous biometric verification replaces PIN-based verification. FIDO2 functionality is only available while the user is authenticated.
- Implements CTAP2 (authenticator to client) over NFC.
- Can store multiple key pairs for multiple relying parties.
- Can be registered as a security token with standard services such as Microsoft, Google, and many others.
