Apple is the latest company to join the FIDO Alliance, an industry standards group committed to finding more secure ways to log in to online accounts and apps. The FIDO Alliance pushes for multi-factor authentication (MFA) deployment, from biometric authentication to physical security keys. Computerworld's Lucas Mearian joins Ken and Juliet to discuss why Apple joined the FIDO Alliance, how different forms of authentication work and how far away we are from a password-less world. Copyright ©...

Facebook’s plans to launch its Libra cryptocurrency tied to cash appear to be making a course correction, as the social network now appears to be planning to support not only its own digital token through its online wallet but others offered by central banks. Libra, a cryptocurrency transacted across an immutable blockchain ledger, was expected to be a single currency for all global transactions. It is now expected to be just one digital payment method for Facebook, whose plans now include...

Baptist Health is a three-hospital, nonprofit system serving Montgomery, Ala. and the surrounding region. It has 680 beds, 550 affiliated physicians and is the largest private employer in the area. Like most healthcare facilities, Baptist Health has been working to reduce unnecessary admissions and readmissions by using massive data stores in electronic health record systems (EHRs) — in this case, Cerner EHR system. Baptist Health had been using a LACE index tool, a widely used predictive...

In a somewhat unusual move for Apple, the company has joined the Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) Alliance, an authentication standards group dedicated to replacing passwords with another, faster and more secure method for logging into online services and apps. Apple is among the last tech bigwigs to join FIDO, whose members now include Amazon, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, RSA, Samsung, Qualcomm and VMware. The group also boasts more than a dozen financial service firms such as American...

Despite an increase in the number of companies hit by mobile attacks that led to compromises, four in 10 businesses sacrificed security to meet profit goals or avoid “cumbersome” security processes, according to Verizon’s third annual Mobile Security Index 2020. It showed that 43% of organizations sacrificed security. More typical reasons for companies exposing themselves to risk, such as lack of budget and IT expertise, trailed “way behind” things such as expediency (62%), convenience (52%)...