Yubico has launched FIDO Pre-reg, a feature that the company claims will improve the adoption of passwordless authentication.
During the announcement at Oktane 23, the security key vendor will partner with identity management company Okta to deliver the new feature for YubiKeys purchased through a YubiEnterprise subscription. Yubico also claims that this is the first feature of its kind.
Essentially, the supported YubiKeys will be pre-registered with Okta, allowing organizations to have FIDO activation out-of-the-box, eliminating user registration and thus reducing the burden on administrators.
Security key authentication
Yubico describes the new FIDO Pre-reg as “a first-to-market feature that accelerates passwordless and phishing-resistant MFA for the enterprise.” Okta will be the first identity provider (IdP) that Yubico will partner with, with more to come in the future.
The company also claims that using its security keys provides “the most secure form of password authentication.” It has stated that it wants to “bring security keys mainstream into the enterprise,” with this new feature demonstrating just how smooth the experience of using security keys to authenticate passkeys can be.
“Organizations have historically been challenged to accelerate user adoption of phishing-resistant MFA and FIDO key solutions like YubiKeys at speed and scale,” said Jeff Wallace, senior vice president of product at Yubico.
He added: “Typically, administrators manually register YubiKeys on behalf of each employee before delivering them to the office or sending the key to the employee’s location.”
“FIDO Pre-reg eliminates these challenges and provides a quick and easy way to implement phishing resistance across the enterprise from day one with turnkey YubiKey activation – all while reducing IT costs.”
To log into online accounts without a password, users simply need to navigate to a web app or their Okta login page and enter a PIN provided by their IT department. Okta’s US customers will be the first to benefit, as they can order pre-registered YubiKeys as part of a limited access period.
Key purchases must be made through the YubiEnterprise Subscription program and users must also have Okta Identity Engine (OIE), Okta Adaptive MFA (AMFA), and Okta Workflows.
The first keys that will be compatible will be the YubiKey 5 NFC and YubiKey 5C NFC. This will be extended to all YubiKeys in mid-2024, when the feature will be generally available.