Sign in to your desktop or tablet with a fingerprint and then be able to make secure payments?
Yes, says Lenovo, which is working with several industry partners, including PayPal and Intel, to bring biometric security sensors to its Yoga convertible devices – starting with the Yoga 910 – as well as desktop PCs.
The aim is to “reduce fraud and increase security, while making online authentication nearly frictionless with biometrics secured by built-in, hardware-level protection,” the partners said in the joint announcement early Friday. PayPal and Lenovo are not strangers as partners or as tackling password problems. The and others first partnered to launch a “get rid of passwords” initiative in 2013.
However, when the new sensors will be available isn’t yet known, a Lenovo spokesperson says.
“It’s currently in development. Availability date is not yet set,” she told WRAL TechWire. “Once available, it will be target the Lenovo Yoga 910 convertible laptop and select Lenovo systems based on Intel’s Kaby Lake platform and Synaptics touch fingerprint sensors.”
Initially, the system will be offered as a “software download” to machines that are equipped to support the sensor, she added.
Growing biometric embrace
The move comes as a new report from research firm International Data Corporation says that “by 2020 a quarter of all worldwide electronic transactions will be authenticated biometrically, driven by the use of biometric-enabled devices.”
“IDC believes that biometrics adoption and market growth will continue as new technologies and interfaces become available, new standards are adopted, and organizations find ways to roll them out cost-effectively across their operations,” the report adds.
“Simpler … safer”
“We’re making signing in simpler and safer on a PC,” Lenovo declared. “Though all the user has to do is touch the fingerprint reader, sophisticated technology is at work protecting the sensitive credentials. Each login is wrapped in three layers of protection designed so that neither the user’s fingerprint information nor their FIDO credentials, ever leave their device: built-in hardware security, a secure device ID, and FIDO-compliant biometric authentication.”
FIDO, by the way, stands for the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, an industry partnership created in 2012 to speed up and improve device security.
Lenovo says it’s the first PC company aiming to bring FIDO to the desktop.
FIDO praise
The move drew praise from Brent McDowell, the executive director of the FIDO Alliance.
“The first example of this new device capability is featured in the recently announced Lenovo Yoga 910, which incorporates Intel technology based on FIDO standards and FIDO Certified fingerprint sensors from Synaptics to allow service providers like PayPal to roll out passwordless FIDO authentication to desktop users for the first time,” he explained in a blog.
“Once the user with one of these laptops is registered with a FIDO-compliant website, they no longer need to enter a password to be authenticated to that site. They simply touch the built-in sensor and are instantly logged in with a true multi-factor (aka ‘strong’) authentication.”
Lenovo didn’t disclose what other machines would get the sensors.
The security package includes:
- 7th Gen Intel Core processors with intel Software Guard Extensions, or SGX
- Synaptics Natural ID fingerprint sensor
- PayPal’s authentication system
“The average user has to remember passwords for many different accounts, from PC log-in, email to online shopping. We wanted to help change that by freeing users from the burden of remembering complex passwords by providing a simple authentication solution,” said Johnson Jia, senior vice president for the PC & Smart Device Business Group at Lenovo. “We’re excited to be the first PC company to partner with Intel, PayPal and Synaptics to bring users simpler and safer online authentication based on the released FIDO standards, through fingerprint readers designed for improved security on our laptops starting with the Yoga 910 convertible.”
