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Your Identity: "Costanza Style"

Your identity, like an overcrowded wallet, is ready to burst. David Miller, chief security officer for Covisint, tells us how to solve the problem

By David Miller, CSO, Covisint

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Historical precedent

Do you remember when store-based credit cards were all the rage? Every major store (and even smaller ones) had one. Many still do. Sears. Macy's. The local lumber store. The local drug store. Kmart. The Orlando Exxon station.

You name the store, they had a card. And, your dad had pretty much all of them in his very own Costanza-like wallet.

Of course, that meant stores had to manufacture and dispense their own cards, hire legions of accountants to manage the credit all while becoming pseudo-experts in the credit business in addition to their core competency of running their business.

Finally, somebody realized that a single, secure and universally accepted card could do the work of many, and BankAmericard (now called Visa) was born. Soon, it was followed by MasterCharge (now called MasterCard), American Express and others; enabling a single, secure identity to vouch for all transactions.

However, this one-card-fits-all approach had to overcome five key obstacles; the same ones facing those trying to solve today's identity problems: 1) trust and security; 2) independence; 3) ease-of-implementation; 4) liability and 5) global access.

Let's look at how the credit companies solved each obstacle and lay out a plan regarding what identity needs to do:

Issue: What credit did. What identity needs to do.

-Trust and security Established a secure, trusted system that ensured people could purchase and business was paid. Establish a secure, trusted system that ensures that identities can access and systems allow that access securely, confidently.

Independence Created an entity independent of the bias of the vendor. This enabled disputes to be resolved transparently and equitably and processes that equally served everyone. Create an entity independent of the bias of the system owner, i.e., Amazon, Yahoo, Walmart.com. This will enable disputes to be resolved transparently and equitably and processes that equally serve everyone.

Ease of implementation Made it painless for vendors and consumers to use their service. Make it painless for service providers and consumers to use the identity brokerage service. This will be a standards-based implementation that serves all equally.

Reduced liability Insulated stores from the liabilities of managing credit, and enabled them to concentrate on what they did best; the making and selling of goods, and eliminating the credit and administrative burden. Insulate the service provider from the vagaries of identity management, policy and liability. Enable business to concentrate on the business, not the technology.

Global access Made it possible to use their cards regardless of geography, taking care of all translation, monetary exchange rates and other previous impediments to global commerce. Allow services to consume location-independent identities, taking care of all local, state and international laws related to identities.