Digital Identity

That whole trust thing

[Dave Birch] A survey from the not-entirely-disinterested American Bankers Association says that US consumers trust banks far more than anyone else (including the government) to look after their identity.  It's certainly been discussed enough -- the idea that banks might become identity brokers of some description -- and it has always seemed to me that it's not a crazy idea.  Further, some leading banks actually set up a consortium to do just this a few years ago.  That consortium, Identrus, has become IdenTrust.  If trust is the one intangible commodity banks possess that rises above anything non-bank rivals might have, and with digital certificates and digital signatures once again been seen as the general solution to the identity problem, then perhaps its day has come.

The chat room paradox

[Dave Birch] Chat rooms are a great place to start thinking about digital identity. Especially where children are concerned. I started thinking about this again while I was dipping into the privacy vs. anonymity debate that is swirling around our corner of the Internet yet again. If we (ie, the digital identity illuminati) can solve the chat room problem, then we'll really have achieved something.

Chat rooms were in the news recently because UK users of Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger can now click a new button in the chat application to contact police with reports of suspicious behavior and instances of inappropriate sexual conduct online (eg, any mention of having viewed Celebrity Love Island). But how do you know who was being "inappropriate"?

Technorati Tags: internet, privacy

Barclays to tighten online banking security

[Dave Birch] Barclays Bank is going to issue hand-held chip card readers to all of its 1.6 million active online banking customers to tighten security and combat identity theft.  The calculator-sized two-factor authentication devices will be distributed throughout 2007.  They will be based on reader specifications developed by the banking industry body APACS.  As a Barclays customer for nearly three decades, I'm looking forward to getting mine.

Technorati Tags: authentication, banking, internet

Fantasy panel

[Dave Birch]  A couple of weeks ago the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology released the report of its investigation into the handling of scientific advice with respect to the UK's proposed national identity card.  This brought me the traditional 15 seconds of fame, as I was one of the six non-government witnesses examined by the committee.  Anyway, the chairman of the committe, Mr. Phil Willis  M.P., has kindly agreed to come along to the Forum in November to take part in the "Fantasy National ID Card" expert panel.

Technorati Tags: ID cards

Insurers Study Implanting RFID Chips in Patients

[Dave Birch] Hackensack University Medical Center and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey are recruiting volunteers to have an RFID device implanted under the skin. The chips, made by VeriChip Corporation, will contain a 16-digit identifying number that can be used to bring up medical and family contact information stored electronically in a database. The chips will be tested in patients with chronic conditions who are more likely to need care in hospital emergency rooms.

Technorati Tags: contactless, RFID

The ID computer debate

[Dave Birch] Over the past couple of years, I've become convinced that one reason for the sterility of the debate about identity cards in the UK -- which is, of course, one of the most important digital identity initiatives there's likely to be here -- is that "cards" is fundamentally the wrong name.  By calling the identity computers of tomorrow "cards", we stunt the thinking and set in place a group of metaphors that lead less technical persons (eg, politicians) to create the wrong infrastructure, an infrastructure that looks backward to centralised databases, closed networks and pieces of cardboard.  So what can the ID computers of tomorrow do that the ID cards of the past could not?  And why does a privacy-sensitive person such as myself think that ID computers are a good idea?

Technorati Tags: ID cards, privacy, security

Cloning e-passports

[Stuart Fiske] Because of the CHYP Electronic Passport Interoperability Service, we've already had a few calls about today's Wired News story on the cloning of e-passports.   But what exactly is this story about?  Is it about uncrackable e-passports being broken open by hackers?  Or is it about someone reading the specifications and discovering that e-passports work as they are supposed to?

Technorati Tags: e-Passports, RFID, security, travel