Lenovo has announced that it is working with Intel, PayPal and Synaptics to bring FIDO-enabled fingerprint authentication to its PCs. Leveraging Intel's hardware security and Synaptics' fingerprint sensor tech, FIDO authentication on Lenovo laptops would allow users to sign into FIDO-enabled services such as PayPal without the need for a password.
The ultimate goal, according to Lenovo, lines up with that of the FIDO Alliance itself: to combat fraud by replacing the password, which has proven increasingly vulnerable in light of a spate of recent security breaches, with more secure solutions. From Lenovo:
As the use cases for Internet-connected devices grows at the enterprise and consumer level, there is a critical need for highly secure, but unobtrusive methods for protecting identities, data and machines. Lenovo and Intel's shared hardware expertise allows for a unified, built-in security architecture that's more secure, private and hassle free. Likewise PayPal brings its authentication expertise and Synaptics their biometrics knowledge to deliver a much needed alternative solution to the password problem.
Lenovo didn't specify when we should start seeing these FIDO-certified laptops popping up in the wild, but this announcement might mean that our first peek shouldn't be too far off.
