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New FIDO Certified Professional Program Launched
The Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance now has a certification program for IT professionals.
The new FIDO Certified Professional Program ultimately will help organizations "break their dependence on passwords -- enabling greater security and enhanced user experience," according to Andrew Shikiar, executive director and chief marketing officer at the FIDO Alliance, in a released statement. The FIDO Alliance is an industry coalition that advocates a passwordless approach and standards for identity and access management at organizations.
The newly announced FIDO certification program will offer IT pros the ability to use their expertise for business opportunities. They'll also gain competitive advantage and increased earnings potential, according to the FIDO Alliance's announcement of the program.
The certification program has some eligibility requirements. Candidates need "at least two to four (2-4) years of industry experience," according to the FIDO Alliance's "Candidate Handbook" for certifications (PDF download). Moreover, that experience needs to be with three of five domains, namely:
- Analyzing Business Requirements
- Validating Business and Technical Requirements for Implementation
- Designing and Implementing Business and Technical Requirements
- Deploying FIDO Authentication Solutions
- Educating Others about Authentication
IT pros that would seek certifications under the FIDO Certified Professional Program would typically be working "in roles such as Technology Architects, System & Operations Engineers, Security Professionals, and Identity & Access Management Professionals," the "Handbook" explained.
The program has charges for taking the test and retaking tests, plus there's an "annual maintenance" cost for certified professionals. Maintaining FIDO membership and certification involves earning 90 continuing professional education credits over the three-year certification cycle.
The announcement of the FIDO Certification Professional Program comes on April 12, which has been dubbed "Identity Management Day" (the second Tuesday of April) by its sponsors, the Identity Defined Security Alliance and the National Cybersecurity Alliance.
Identity Management Day featured an online conference on the topic, with six sessions, which are listed at this page. The group also announced its identity security best-practices award winners, including "Adobe, Allstate, West-Mark, and Rajnish Bhatia of Comcast."
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.