NYT on US Government Identities

The New York Times on a good background on the NSTIC proposal for online identities.

But the White House is out to fight cyberphobia with an initiative intended to bolster confidence in e-commerce. The plan, called theNational Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspaceand introduced earlier this year, encourages the private-sector development and public adoption of online user authentication systems. Think of it as a drivers license for the Internet. The idea is that if people have a simple, easy way to prove who they are online with more than a flimsy password, theyll naturally do more business on the Web. And companies and government agencies, likeSocial Securityor the I.R.S., could offer those consumers faster, more secure online services without having to come up with their own individual vetting systems.

There will never be a government sponsored identity program that makes everyone happy. It’s natural to have big brotherconcerns when the government enters the identity space. That said, the US is behind many countries in this area.

Perfect or not, it’s a great start.

As originally posted at jayschulman.com on September 23, 2011.