The growing need for fast, accurate verification of personal identities has prompted a call from an industry observer for a global agency to set international standards.
The realm of identity and access management (IAM) is heating up as nations like the UK and the US increase their use of biometrics and other identifying technology in ID cards, border controls and other areas.
Beyond different governments "trying to create a mosaic for what they want as good identity management", wider international cooperation is needed to establish a common language and standards, said Cal Slemp, vice-president and global leader for security and privacy services at IBM Global Services. The common language for exchanging user access information is also known as federated IAM.
"Governments have a huge part to play in this, because they have ultimate responsibility for their citizens, and depending on the country, they may have ultimate responsibility for the businesses and e-commerce as well," Slemp said.
But, current efforts are piecemeal and much more can be done to exploit the potential of the federated environment, added Slemp. During a medical emergency, for instance, the identities of a foreign doctor and a visiting patient need to be established quickly and accurately, in order for the right healthcare to be administered.
What's missing right now, he noted, is a trusted third party to authenticate trustworthiness. "So we've got inconsistent and incomplete implementation [in individual countries], and also no standard approach to the future nor a target to shoot at."
Slemp believes that now is the right time to establish a global body that will consider the interests of all countries and build up a foundation, which the individual countries can expand upon to fulfil their unique requirements.
"There are organisations that work together on this issue and issues like that across borders all the time, and it can be as grandiose as to say the UN has a process in place to share information like that and create working groups to try and to create standards or expectations and across multiple jurisdictions," said Slemp. "I just don't know what the name would be."
Talkback
"Governments have a huge part to play in this, because they have ultimate responsibility for their citizens, and depending on the country, they may have ultimate responsibility for the businesses and e-commerce as well,"
So the difference between communistic regimes like China and the "free market" western societies is that in the former "government is responsible" for the corporation, whereas in the latter, the corporation has a carte blanche?
But in *all* cases, "governments... have ultimate responsibility for their citizens".
This says everything about the fundamentally totalitarian mindset of the speaker, in which the only alternatives are a communistic (in which governments dictate to corporations) or a fascistic (in which corporations dictate to or are "partners of" government) government.
Listen up, Cal! Governments aren't responsible *for* people! They are responsible *TO* people. And the harder you pigs squeeze, the more out of control your Orwellian hellhole will become.
But hey, what else can you expect. These guys are chomping at the bit. They got away with it once:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Breaking/Court-rejects-IBMs-Nazi-associations/2005/05/04/1115092535520.html?from=moreStories&oneclick=true
Which is to say, they've gotten away with accessory to murder 6 million (8 million? 10 million?) times over.
Here's a decent interview with Black:
http://news.com.com/Probing+IBMs+Nazi+connection/2009-1082_3-269157.html
IBM has been the Globalist ID Technological arm for many many years dating back to it's shameful involvement in branding jewish prisoners in the Nazi Death Camps.
Good old IBM. I'm sure they will be able to make great use of the technology and techniques they mastered while processing Jews and political prisoners in concentration camps for the Nazis.
All about power and control. Imagine Hitler with this kind of technology. Yeah.
People. Don't shoot the messenger. And don't shoot the son for crimes committed by the granddaddy.
That said I don't believe that whatever single entity should have (most) control about anything with global powers. For that I much more believe in decentralization and diversity linked together by means of open industry standards governed by area specific regulations and laws.
It's just prep folks. They throw this stuff out on news services to see what the reaction will be and then they spin it accordingly. Create enough fear and you will get the majority of the population to accept it.
There are millions of guys that have good ideas, thousands that have brilliant ideas, and hundreds that have world-changing ideas.
But due to the fact that company association is the only form of reputation system we currently have, guys like Cal Slemp have their opinions plasted all over the news, regardless of the true value of their current opinion, while people like me who think we have something that can change the world, never get a hearing. I personally have contacted over one hundred and fifty multinationals, government departments, Attorney Generals, banks, research organisations - you name it. And over ninety percent don't even bother replying.
It is certainly true that most supposedly brilliant ideas are either already thought of, or unworkable. I am yet to hear this of mine, and I've sure as hell tried. All those that have managed to fully understand my Identity Management solution suggest go for it - but refrain from having their name or company associated.
Those in a position of power and/or influence- both in government and in large corporations - need to consider that while they sit on their fat arse behind their secretaries, security guards and private telephone listings, that if they are not prepared to listen to the customers and tax payers, then they should shut the hell up and stop pretending that they know best.
The ultimate insult, comes from those that suggest that we need more co-operation to tackle this massive problem - yet they are not personally interested in listening, except when it means a quick buck for them.
If you think your company has what it takes to bring an Identity Theft solution to the world but you can't imagine what a real solution would look like, then try me:
zdnetuk@glenmcd.com
Glen McDiarmid
QLD, Australia