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[Fullmoon]

Gov't trusted Internet identities a long way off

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/011411-experts-govt-trusted-internet-identities.html

By George V. Hulme, CSO
January 14, 2011 12:50 PM ET
The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace aims to set the benefits, overall strategy, goals and objectives of the government's plan to improve how users (and even devices) are authenticated onto the Internet. The plan, so far, calls for very limited government involvement in the development of the identity infrastructure. As it stands today, the government's role will be essentially promoting leadership, encouraging speed of deployment, and the use of certain identity solutions.

Cybersecurity Coordinator and Special Assistant to the President Howard A. Schmidt said the initiative is necessary to help fight online fraud and identity theft. "We have a major problem in cyberspace, because when we are online we do not really know if people, businesses, and organizations are who they say they are. Moreover, we now have to remember dozens of user names and passwords. This multiplicity is so inconvenient that most people re-use their passwords for different accounts, which gives the criminal who compromises their password the "keys to the kingdom," he wrote.

Few would argue the need for improved Internet identities and authentication. But the devil, if there is one, would reside in the details of the plan. The initial version of the plan was published last summer. Late last week, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Schmidt announced the Commerce Department will host a National Program Office (NPO) in support of the National Strategy.

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace aims to set the benefits, overall strategy, goals and objectives of the government's plan to improve how users (and even devices) are authenticated onto the Internet. The plan, so far, calls for very limited government involvement in the development of the identity infrastructure. As it stands today, the government's role will be essentially promoting leadership, encouraging speed of deployment, and the use of certain identity solutions.
Cybersecurity Coordinator and Special Assistant to the President Howard A. Schmidt said the initiative is necessary to help fight online fraud and identity theft. "We have a major problem in cyberspace, because when we are online we do not really know if people, businesses, and organizations are who they say they are. Moreover, we now have to remember dozens of user names and passwords. This multiplicity is so inconvenient that most people re-use their passwords for different accounts, which gives the criminal who compromises their password the "keys to the kingdom," he wrote.

Few would argue the need for improved Internet identities and authentication. But the devil, if there is one, would reside in the details of the plan. The initial version of the plan was published last summer. Late last week, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Schmidt announced the Commerce Department will host a National Program Office (NPO) in support of the National Strategy.

The answer is "possibly" as the government is, so far, only working to encourage the adoption of technologies by private industry. And that, analysts say, means anything concrete coming from this plan is years away.

"It's not clear to me how the government can influence identity much further than where things are today already," said Scott Crawford, research director at Enterprise Management Associates. "They can say something is a good idea, such as by getting behind a standard," he said. "But how are they going to create an ecosystem of identity providers? That can happen only if they become an identity provider for the Internet themselves, otherwise they can't do much more than provide moral support."