Trusted Identity in Cyberspace

A Look at White House’s National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace

The need to improve the current state of online identity has been hailed at the highest levels of the U.S. government.

“By making online transactions more trustworthy and better protecting privacy, we will prevent costly crime, we will give businesses and consumers new confidence, and we will foster growth and untold innovation,” President Obama said in a statement on Launch of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. This podcast covers the topic from the point of view of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The NSTIC proposes the creation of an “identity ecosystem” online, “where individuals and organizations will be able to trust each other because they follow agreed upon standards to obtain and authenticate their digital identities.” The strategy puts government in the role of a convener, verifying and certifying identity providers in a trust framework.

First steps toward this model, in the context of citizen-to-government authentication, came in 2010 with the launch of the Open Identity Exchange (OIX) and a pilot at the National Institute of Health of a trust frameworks — but there’s a very long road ahead for this larger initiative.

Why is this important?

* 10 Trillion Dollars of Online Transactions
* Could ensure the growth of the Web
* Could ensure the success of the Web profession
* Could ensure private sector involvement
* Cyber crime cost consumers 37 billion dollars a year
* Could serve as a identity protection program for consumers

The final version of NSTIC is a framework that lays out a vision for an identity ecosystem. Video of the launch of the NSTIC at the Commerce Department is embedded below:

ber crime cost consumers 37 billion dollars a year

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