Safeguarding Digital Identity

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Safeguarding Digital Identity (Pdf.)

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THE CHALLENGE

Society’s demand for electronic access to information,goods, and services is growing. People and businesses are putting more information online, including details about people’s finances, health, and daily habits. Easy access to information online makes it critical to verify the identity of those accessing the information in order to protect the privacy and integrity of that information, as well as the systems holding it. In addition, the privacy of the individual’s identity itself must be protected. Common and acceptable processes, standards,and technologies are needed for identity management and privacy protection. Digital identities that are poorly managed or protected may lead to overexposure of personal information and identity theft. A common and secure framework for identity management will not only mitigate these risks, it will make new services possible. Secure electronic access to medical records and infrastructure can speed recovery efforts after disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Businesses will be able to fully embrace the benefits of e-commerce when customers know their private online details will be strongly protected. Doctors will be able to offer their patients better healthcare by taking advantage of information technology while protecting their patients’ sensitive records.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Safeguarding Digital Identity Research Project, supported by the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P), brings together some leading research institutions to develop an analytical framework for identity and privacy protection focused on the finance and healthcare communities and to develop a set of identity and privacy protection capabilities that meet the needs of those communities.

WHAT MAKES THIS PROJECT UNIQUE?

There are many existing efforts investigating the issues surrounding and solutions for identity and privacy protection. However, a holistic approach to the problem – one that balances important policy, legal, and social issues – should be evaluated. This project intends to collaborate with and leverage existing efforts to develop such an approach to providing identity and privacy protection. To be successful, this total-system approach will balance the many facets of privacy and identity management.

PROJECT GOALS

The goals of this project are to:

• Facilitate collaboration among the multiple efforts in the area of privacy-protecting identity management.
• Develop and demonstrate new capabilities for use particularly within finance and healthcare, but widely applicable to other sectors.
• Transition these capabilities to vendors for further development and production.
• Influence and benefit standards bodies, working groups, and government programs.
• Influence future research directions in this area.
  

RESEARCH APPROACH

• The team will collaborate with stakeholders in this area (including members of the finance and healthcare sectors, vendors, government agencies, research efforts, and relevant working groups) to determine what kinds of solutions are needed and how to go about developing them.
• The research team will define an analytical framework for describing digital credential requirements and solutions, to enable comparisons and facilitate the identification of gaps. This framework will include metrics for assessing identity systems.
• I3P researchers will build or refine new technologies to close gaps identified by stakeholders in current identity management frameworks and solutions.
• The research team will demonstrate the framework's usefulness, applying it to the real world needs of stakeholders, showing how it offers new capabilities for solving key problems.

TEAM MEMBERS

• The MITRE Corporation
• The Information Trust Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• SRI International
• Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security. Purdue University
  
• Georgia Tech Information Security Center
  

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED

If your organization is a member of the finance or healthcare sector, a vendor of identity management or privacy solutions, or investigating identity and privacy issues, and you would like to influence our research direction, please contact us to discuss the key issues your organization faces in this area and the needs you see with respect to identity and privacy protection solutions.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Project Leader: Michelle Moody, (781) 271-2371
I3P Associate Director for Research: (603) 646-0692