Visa follows Discover and MasterCard’s lead becoming the third card association to join the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance’s board of directors. The FIDO Alliance is focused on developing standards and technical specifications to make online authentication more secure.
The FIDO Alliance was formed in mid-2012 to address two primary issues with online authentication: the lack of interoperability standards across strong authentication devices, and the reliance on consumer created usernames and passwords, which are often weak and used across multiple platforms. Discover and MasterCard joined as board members towards the end of 2013, and Visa is the most recent board member to join announcing their participation in late May.