Digital Identity

Foreword

The migration of sociability, business, entertainment, and other activities from the physical world to the virtual world of the Internet has dramatic implications on many fronts. The societal mores, legal structures, and commonly accepted business practices that govern everyday life in the physical world have evolved over thousands of years, and that evolution continues every day. But now we're in the process of translating those structures to the Internet, creating a new place where people can interact. That "place" is radically different from the physical world, one where networked applications combine with ubiquitous connectivity to free transactions, communications, and other activities from physical constraints, thus, creating an entirely new set of requirements.

When it comes to enabling a truly virtual world that can accommodate the breadth and depth of human endeavor, nothing is more important than identity. On the Internet, movement is instantaneous. People, applications, transactions, and data can cross many types of borders via many different paths. At the same time, the security issues associated with a very public and virtual space have become painfully clear as spam, phishing attacks, fraud, and identity theft have become all too common.

Digital identity is the keystone that will ensure that the Internet infrastructure is strong enough to meet basic expectations for not just service and functionality, but security, privacy, and reliability. That fact is becoming ...