The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) yesterday awarded pilot projects to five organizations and companies to help transition a fledgling trusted identity solutions project for online transactions from the concept stage into the realm of practical solutions for everyday use.
NIST, through its National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), awarded more than $9 million in grants for the pilot projects that are aimed at increasing confidence in online transactions. Each of the awardees have numerous teammates, including Fortune 500 companies, to help with their respective projects.
The five awardees and their amounts are:
* Resilient Network Systems, $2 million to demonstrate that sensitive health and education transactions on the Internet can earn patient and parent trust by using a trust network build around privacy-enhancing encryption technology to provide secure, multi-factor, on-demand identity proofing and authentication across multiple sectors;
* Criterion Systems, $2 million for a project that will allow consumers to selectively share shopping and other preferences and information to both reduce fraud and enhance the user experience;
* University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (better known as Internet2), $1.8 million to build a consistent and robust privacy infrastructure through common attributes, user-effective privacy managers, anonymous credentials, and Internet2’s InCommon Identity Federation service, and to encourage the use of multifactor authentication and other technologies;
* Daon, Inc., $1.8 million to demonstrate how senior citizens and all consumers can benefit from a digitally connected, consumer friendly identity ecosystem that enables consistent, trusted interactions with multiple parties online that will reduce fraud and enhance privacy;
* The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, $1.6 million, to lead a consortium of private industry and government partners to implement and pilot the Cross Sector Digital Identity Initiative, which has a goal to produce a secure online identity ecosystem that will lead to safer transactions by enhancing privacy and reducing the risk of fraud in online commerce.
The pilot projects accelerate the implementation of an identity ecosystem by putting resources into potential solutions, Jeremy Grant, director of the NSTIC National Program Office, told Defense Daily yesterday. The projects help move the identity ecosystem from a concept and theory to an “execution plan,” he said.
The pilots will also allow the collection of data that can be used by the NSTIC to provide lessons learned and further advance technology and business models.
The identity ecosystem essentially refers to an online environment where individuals, businesses and other organizations operate with greater privacy, trust and security in conducting sensitive transactions. Grant said that three of the pilots deal with testing privacy enhancing encryption technology in potentially wider applications than ever before.
Enhanced privacy and trust could lead more trustworthy identity solutions that in turn make it easier for customers to transact business with online retailers and thereby benefiting the economy, Grant said.
The award of the pilot grants is the most recent key milestone in the NSTIC’s work, a key part of which is letting the private sector drive implementation. Last month the private sector took the baton in moving forward establishing the identity ecosystem although Grant and his office will still be overseeing and participating in the process (Defense Daily, Aug. 29).