Alibaba Joins FIDO Alliance Security Consortium's Board

Just a few days after debuting on Wall Street with one of the biggest initial public offerings to hit the U.S. market, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings has joined the Fast IDentity Online board.

Last week, Alibaba Group affiliate Alipay announced it would deploy the first FIDO-ready authentication technology in China, using fingerprint scanning technology from Nok Nok Labs on its Alipay Wallet for e-commerce payments.

Alibaba Group founded Alipay in December 2004. The payments unit was spun off into a separate entity in 2009, with Alibaba maintaining an affiliate relationship with the business.

FIDO, established in 2012, operates as an industry consortium seeking to establish stronger open and interoperable online authentication standards through biometrics and current security technologies.

Working with the FIDO board is a natural step for Alibaba, which relies on secure authentication to operate its e-commerce business, Ni Liang, senior director of department of security at Alibaba Group, said in a Sept. 23 press release.

"Our many businesses and services are enriched by authentication that creates a better and more reliable user experience, as well as insightful risk management," Liang added.

Alibaba Group filed for its IPO in the U.S. in May. The company enjoyed a successful first day of trading on Sept. 19, closing the day at $93.89 a share, a 38% increase from the $68 price established at its IPO.

The company's IPO raised $21.8 billion, which CNN Money called the largest ever for a company listed on an American exchange.

The FIDO Alliance board includes Visa, MasterCard and Discover, as well as Samsung, ARM Holdings, Google, PayPal and founder Nok Nok Labs. Other members are Bank of America, Oberthur Technologies, RSA, Blackberry, CrucialTec, IdentityX, Microsoft, Lenovo, NXP Semiconductors, Qualcomm Inc., Synaptics and Yubico.