Government, Third Parties Build Identity Management for e-Government Services

How the Federal government is taking steps to move toward “trust networks."

The next step in improving government transparency and delivery of services requires empowering citizens with improved, pseudonymous access, a panel of experts told an audience September 8, 2009, when the Distinguished Speaker Series: Focus on Identity came to Booz Allen Hamilton to discuss how the federal government is taking steps to move toward “trust networks.”

Citizens already have started down the road of identity management simply by setting up a Google or Yahoo! e-mail account, for example, where they provide a very limited amount of personal information – a name, an e-mail address – and establish a screen name persona. The value in this for the government is threefold, said Don Thibeau, executive director of the Open ID Foundation: It enables the government to interact with citizens where they are today (in front of their computers); it allows the citizens to work with an identity provider (e.g., Google) they trust; and for citizens to use a password they already know.

The government has been “trying to get single sign-on through the open trust network,” Ron Carpinella, vice president of identity management, Equifax, said. “This is an effort to eliminate the need for that.”

A user-centric model such as this allows whistle blowers to participate, since it establishes an arms-length identity, and other prospective users with privacy concerns, such as patients in drug trials at the National Institutes of Health [NIH], Thibeau added.

“We've been in the business of accepting Level One [identity] credentials from outside providers for about a year now,” said Peter Alterman, senior advisor to the NIH Chief Information Officer for Strategic Initiatives. This capability is enabling such applications as providing lab training online from the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, getting online assistance in completing grant applications, and accessing a number of NIH publications, he said.

Another benefit of accepting the use of credentials established by these outside groups is the cost-savings realized by ending the practice of building directories, Alterman said. “Table after table, database after database, directory after directory, are going away.”

The hour-long panel discussion will be broadcast on Federal News Radio, 1500AM, on Sept. 16 at 2:05 p.m.

story posted September 9, 2009