Technology Leaders Favor Online ID Card Over Passwords

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/technology/24card.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=
rss&pagewanted=print
 >

New York Times

June 24, 2008

Technology Leaders Favor Online ID Card Over Passwords
By LAURIE J. FLYNN

SAN FRANCISCO  Microsoft, Google and PayPal, a unit of eBay, are
among the founders of an industry organization that hopes to solve the
problem of password overload among computer users.

The Information Card Foundation is an effort to create a single
industrywide approach to managing identity online that promises to
reduce drastically the use of passwords and create a system that is
less vulnerable to fraud.

There is such a market requirement to solve this problem, said Paul
Trevithick, chairman of the new group and chief executive of Parity,
an identity-protection technology company in Needham, Mass., that is
developing what it calls an i-card. The foundation, which also
includes Equifax, Novell, Oracle and nine industry analysts and
technology leaders, will try to set open standards for the technology
industry.

The idea is to bring the concept of an identity card, like a drivers
license, to the online world. Rather than logging on to sites with
user IDs and passwords, people will gain access to sites using a
secure digital identity that is overseen by a third party. The user
controls the information in a secure place and transmits only the data
that is necessary to access a Web site.

In addition to simplifying online shopping, such information cards
will reduce the number of phishing incidents  that is, the fraudulent
use of someones identity to gain access to financial records,
according to Robert Blakeley, a research director at the Burton Group,
a consulting firm that is participating in the effort. You dont have
to depend on a password, so theres no phishing opportunity, he said.

One of the biggest tasks facing the group is getting the millions of
Web sites to support the new system, a process analysts estimate will
take a few years.

The technology is available today, but what is not available today is
a lot of sites that will accept information cards, Mr. Blakeley said.
The mission of the group is to assure everybody that the industry is
working together and that it is not going to be a competitive
battlefield.

Michael B. Jones, Microsofts director of identity partnerships, said
the information card system would depend on the support of Web site
owners in the same way that early Web browsers like Netscape waited
for the support of Web server developers. The technology will first be
used on desktop systems but will eventually find its way to mobile
phones and other hand-held devices, he said.

Microsoft has been working on the concept of an identity card for some
time. The new organization will ensure various approaches adhere to
the same standard.