CardLab introduces QuardLock, a brand new period in cybersecurity that gives passwordless authentication with FIDO2 offline biometric fingerprint playing cards and a licensed backend server.
State-of-the-art cybersecurity
CardLab has developed a biometric ‘authentication as a service’ answer primarily based on biometric smartcards in numerous configurations for logical and bodily entry management, mixed with a backend authentication system. These biometric smartcards are at all times offline and play a central position in our consolidated cybersecurity platform. Fingerprint templates are encrypted within the card’s safe aspect and by no means depart it. Personal keys which can be used for authentication and transaction signing are additionally encrypted within the card’s safe aspect and by no means depart it. Nothing within the playing cards’ safe aspect is accessible from outdoors, offering a brand new stage of hacker-proof cybersecurity answer.
QuardLock is CardLab’s centralised id platform, combining an open listing with a single layer that connects and governs entry throughout all IT sources. Securely join customers to their units, servers, networks, apps, and information, the place the “QuardLock” answer can function an authoritative listing or defer to current id suppliers.
CardLab offers passwordless logical entry to IT sources and safe bodily entry to buildings, restricted areas, gates, rooms, follow-me-print, and many others. By way of open integration capabilities, the QuardLock answer can present a single id for the whole lot and join customers to hundreds of sources with a single set of safe credentials.
In contrast to a inflexible, conventional listing, the cloud-based QuardLock answer offers an open listing platform that follows open protocols resembling SAML, LDAP, RADIUS, and SCIM, enabling heterogeneous sources to be linked and managed from a single supply.
Why cybersecurity issues
Think about this: Your worst nightmare simply got here true – your organization has been hacked. Your workers passwords and identities are actually within the palms of a hacker. What do you do subsequent? Altering passwords on all of your accounts is a should, however are you able to bear in mind all of them? Are you able to act quick sufficient earlier than the legal wreaks havoc in your workers‘ identities and steals very important data from the corporate?
The truth
This isn’t only a scary story; it’s a really actual risk affecting firms worldwide each day. Quantum computer systems and AI can crack encrypted passwords in minutes. Hackers try and steal passwords 4,000 instances per second. To remain protected, you want complicated passwords with at the very least 16 characters that blend numbers, letters, and symbols for every account, however even that won’t make you safe.
The problem
Remembering such sophisticated passwords is sort of not possible, and utilizing the identical password throughout a number of accounts is an enormous no-no. Do you recurrently change your passwords? Are you able to belief that the functions you’re accessing use sturdy encryption? Even main firms typically fail to encrypt their databases, leaving passwords uncovered.
The old-fashioned answer
Some flip to password managers that create and retailer complicated passwords encrypted within the cloud or in your system. With a grasp password, you may decrypt the passwords and use them to entry all of your accounts. This methodology isn’t foolproof, as hackers nonetheless can intercept grasp passwords by way of malware, phishing, man-in-the-middle assaults, social engineering, and keyloggers. Even SMS can simply be intercepted.
Many authentication programs at the moment use time-based codes (TOTP) in a local app put in in your smartphone, however time-based codes may be intercepted remotely by hackers, both by capturing them in transit or by way of phishing assaults.
The brand new faculty answer: FIDO2/passkey
Historical past has proven that passwords are the weakest hyperlink in cybersecurity. That’s why it’s time to go passwordless. The CardLab answer eliminates the necessity for passwords, offering a seamless and safe strategy to defend servers and workers’ digital identities.
These safer strategies used at the moment for authentication (FIDO2/passkey) change static passwords and time-based codes with sturdy public-key cryptography, making them proof against phishing, man-in-the-middle, session hijacking, and different kinds of assaults.
The FIDO2/passkey requires bodily entry to the FIDO card/smartphone or system that holds the personal key. Due to this fact, even when a hacker intercepts the communication remotely, they can not use it to authenticate with out having the bodily system of their palms. Biometric fingerprint verification on the cardboard or FaceID on a cellphone provides an additional layer of safety, tying the permitted consumer to the system.
These options make FIDO2/passkey a extremely safe authentication methodology, considerably decreasing the chance of distant assaults, that are the primary methodology hackers use.
Utilizing a CardLab biometric smartcard with a built-in FIDO2/passkey function will make this authentication methodology very sturdy, since transaction signing happens offline and is totally out of attain of hackers.
By no means belief, at all times confirm
To ascertain and confirm identities is a vital step in assembly the zero-trust precept, together with the necessity for an organisational coverage for ‘who ought to have entry to what, when and why.
With CardLab’s risk-based adaptive authentication course of, each entry request is validated earlier than extra privileges or entry are granted.
It is a step to stop phishing, as cybercriminals with phished credentials are more likely to attempt to register a brand new system, work from a brand new location, or try entry outdoors of the true consumer’s typical working hours.
The system can detect these indicators and problem entry makes an attempt accordingly to stop dangerous actors from having access to crucial data.
Safety and GDPR compliance
With GDPR laws, it’s extra necessary than ever to safe consumer privateness and make sure the proper to be forgotten. It’s also crucial to implement the very best stage of safety for consumer authentication to guard your IT system in opposition to unauthorised entry, and to doc who’s accessing what, why, and when for compliance functions.
Robust authentication with FIDO2/passkey prevents the most typical causes of password-related breaches, resembling people who led to the SolarWinds breach.1 The FIDO2 protocols got the very best stage of authentication assurance from NIST and are thought-about stronger than what the U.S. Division of Protection presently makes use of.
Single sign-on
Biometric smartcards with FIDO2/passkey and built-in biometric verification are well-suited for handy and safe passwordless login to a company Home windows area and the QuardLock single sign-on portal.
When logged in together with your biometric verification, the QuardLock single sign-on portal grants seamless, passwordless entry to all company-approved functions, together with cell apps, cloud-based, hybrid, and on-premise functions.
This drastically will increase productiveness whereas retaining knowledge safe. For the consumer, there isn’t any password to recollect and/or lose. Simply use your biometric smartcard, confirm your id by fingerprint, and the authentication request will likely be encrypted and transferred to the backend server for verification and authorisation.
Quantum computing safety
As cyber threats evolve, cybersecurity should keep forward. Quantum computing guarantees unbelievable breakthroughs—but in addition threatens to interrupt at the moment’s encryption. CardLab with QuardLock backend authentication is main the best way with a better strategy: offline fingerprint verification on the cardboard mixed with id tokenisation. By eradicating reliance on weak network-based authentication and static credentials, CardLab dramatically reduces assault surfaces and strengthens safety in opposition to phishing and credential theft. Whereas true quantum resistance requires specialised cryptography, this answer delivers strong safety at the moment and a future-ready basis for integrating quantum-safe applied sciences tomorrow.
Offline belief and eIDAS 2.0: The position of biometric smartcards within the EU Digital Identification Pockets
The EU Digital Identification Pockets (EUDIW) underneath eIDAS 2.0 is meant to supply all EU residents and companies with a safe, interoperable, and privacy-preserving digital id. A central unresolved problem is the way to reconcile offline usability with on-line compliance necessities, significantly concerning assurance ranges, revocation, authorized accountability, and privateness.
Most present pockets designs rely closely on on-line, cloud-based belief fashions, which simplify compliance however introduce systemic safety dangers, connectivity dependencies, and privateness considerations. On the similar time, totally offline options face difficulties assembly eIDAS necessities for revocation, freshness, and auditability.
Nevertheless, CardLab has developed an answer to deal with this problem.
Structure
CardLab offers another strategy by which a biometric smartcard acts because the grasp cryptographic authority for the EU Digital Identification Pockets.
On this mannequin:
- All personal keys are saved inside a licensed safe aspect on the smartcard
- Biometric verification and all cryptographic operations happen inside the cardboard
- Smartphones and PCs act solely as consumer interfaces and transport layers, linked through NFC/BLE
- Personal keys and biometric knowledge by no means depart the protected {hardware}
- The cardboard helps FIDO2, OTP/TOTP, X.509 certificates, PIV, and digital signatures
Key implications for eIDAS compliance
The biometric smartcard mannequin:
- Strongly helps eIDAS necessities for sole management of the signatory and non-repudiation
- Permits high-assurance authentication and transaction signing, together with offline use
- Reduces publicity to malware, cloud compromise, and platform-specific belief fashions
- Strengthens authorized defensibility of digital signatures
- Improves privateness by way of knowledge minimisation and decentralised belief
This structure aligns carefully with QSCD2 ideas and offers a reputable path to Excessive Assurance Degree (LoA Excessive) use circumstances.
Coverage relevance
From a coverage perspective, biometric smartcards:
- Cut back systemic danger from centralised id infrastructures
- Improve resilience in offline or disaster situations
- Help EU digital sovereignty and GDPR ideas
- Allow long-term, cross-border interoperability
A biometric smartcard serving because the grasp key for the EU Digital Identification Pockets offers a sturdy, privacy-preserving, and legally sound basis for digital id in Europe. Whereas hybrid on-line mechanisms stay essential for lifecycle administration, this strategy decisively strengthens offline belief and deserves critical consideration inside the eIDAS 2.0 framework.
Alignment with eIDAS 2.0, EU digital sovereignty, and offline belief
Our answer is designed to switch direct publicity of private identifiers with cryptographically managed surrogate values, the place: direct publicity of private identifiers with cryptographically managed surrogate values, the place:
- Solely EU-regulated entities can problem, resolve, or revoke id bindings
- Identification is disclosed solely when legally and contextually required
- Management stays with the EU citizen and EU authorized framework
This aligns the answer with eIDAS, GDPR, and EU constitutional regulation.
Tokenisation as a belief service
Our system successfully proposes an EU-level id abstraction layer:
- Private identifiers (SSN equivalents, card numbers, account IDs, emails)
- Are changed by surrogate id tokens
- Tokens are meaningless outdoors EU belief infrastructure
- Decision (de-tokenisation) requires:
– Person consent
– Robust authentication
– Authorized foundation underneath EU regulation
That is greatest described as a regulated id mediation and attribute decision service – not anonymisation, not evasion.
Function of the biometric smartcard
In your structure, the biometric smartcard with fingerprint verification:
- Holds root personal keys
- Enforces consumer presence (fingerprint)
Indicators:
- Authentication
- Attribute disclosure
- De-tokenisation requests
- Works offline and on-line through NFC or BLE
Critically, the cardboard doesn’t retailer uncooked identifiers for routine use – it shops:
- Cryptographic bindings
- Token references
- Attribute launch insurance policies
This makes the cardboard a private belief anchor somewhat than an information container.
The Microsoft Jurisdiction instance: Tips on how to body it safely
Decreasing systemic dependence on non-EU id and communication suppliers for core civil features is an enormous step in direction of sovereignty and cyber resilience.
The CardLab system:
- Prevents computerized id linkage by international platforms
- Requires EU-law-governed decision
- Preserves lawful cooperation through treaties and courts
This avoids political and authorized purple flags.
Offline vs on-line: Tokenisation impacts
Offline
- Identification verification
- Token creation
- Attribute proofs
- Transaction signing
On-line
- Token decision
- Revocation checks
- Lifecycle updates
The CardLab biometric smartcard mannequin considerably strengthens offline belief, whereas nonetheless permitting compliance.
Dangers and open points
These have to be acknowledged:
- Governance complexity
- Value of smartcard issuance
- Revocation at EU scale
- Member State sovereignty considerations
- Worldwide interoperability
None are blockers — however all are coverage challenges.
Strategic evaluation
What this answer is:
- Privateness-preserving
- eIDAS-aligned
- Technically mature
- Sovereignty-supporting
- Offline-capable
What it isn’t:
- Identification evasion
- Legislation-avoidance
- Anti-government
- Anonymity system
The underside line
A tokenisation-based id mannequin anchored in a biometric smartcard aligns with eIDAS 2.0, strengthens offline belief, enhances privateness, and helps EU digital sovereignty – offered it’s framed as regulated pseudonymisation with lawful de-tokenisation. That is the cornerstone of cybersecurity, with verifiable identification of the actors attempting to enter bodily and digital programs, and paired with tokenization the device that can block a big quantity of Cyber incidents
Dealt with appropriately, this isn’t radical. It’s a logical subsequent step in European Cyber resilience work and a powerful device to deal with current cybersecurity points related to ongoing digitalisation.
CardLab is increasing its cybersecurity answer to incorporate a token service supplier module and a de-tokenisation module, with biometric smartcard and fingerprint verification because the axis of rotation, totally aligned with all its backend companies and guaranteeing the unbreakable hyperlink between the bodily and digital identities.
In a world the place a big portion of social media visible (photos/video) content material, and photos/voices typically, are AI-generated, modified, or manipulated, verifying customers’ identities is essential to a handy and safer digital life for enterprises and people, with minimal danger of dropping knowledge and id.
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_federal_government_data_breach
- https://www.qscd.eu/?srsltid=AfmBOop80i8JD7t7J9qHxkxYk7goStXdyMGrzmILrLA2l-5mel-Y1HyZ, https://certification.enisa.europa.eu/publications/security-evaluation-and-certification-qualified-electronic-signatureseal-creation-devices_en#security-evaluation-and-certification-of-qualified-electronic-signatureseal-creation-devices
