To commemorate the smart card industry’s achievements throughout 2011, the Smart Card Alliance has decided to release its first-ever E-Yearbook.

The nearly 70-page e-book discusses the year’s leadership and advancement in the smart card industry and highlights industry achievements. 

Exostar expanded its Managed Access Gateway identity management service offering to accept one-time password hardware tokens.

The gateway uses the Exostar-issued hardware tokens, as well as other forms of credentials such as basic level of assurance and medium level of assurance public-key infrastructure certificates and Common Access Cards, to control access to Exostar and other service provider applications connected to the Exostar Identity Hub. 

Four industry leaders breakdown the importance of online credentials

There have been many discussions about digital identities and online credentials in 2011. The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) is picking up steam and organizations are seeking to further secure IT networks as threats from hacking increase.

But questions and uncertainty abound. What are digital identities and how do they work? Will one credential work with another? How will they impact privacy and help address regulatory compliance?

In light of these and other pressing questions, Re:ID editors asked some of the leaders in the space to share their thoughts and vision for online ID.

Participating in the roundtable are: Jeremy Grant, senior executive adviser and manager of the National Program Office for NSTIC; Mollie Shields-Uehling, president and CEO at SAFE-BioPharma; Judith Spencer, former co-chair of the Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management Subcommittee at the U.S. General Services Administration and now CertiPath’s policy management authority chair; and Scott Rea, board member and director of operating authority at the Research and Education Bridge Certification Authority (REBCA). 

IBM released its five in five, a list of five innovations that are going to change the way people work and live, with passwords going the way of the Dodo.

The tech giant states that an individual’s biological makeup will be the key to their individual identity and safeguarding it. Individuals won’t have to remember multiple passwords but instead biometrics will unlock access. 

Four industry leaders breakdown the importance of online credentials

There have been many discussions about digital identities and online credentials in 2011. The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) is picking up steam and organizations are seeking to further secure IT networks as threats from hacking increase.

But questions and uncertainty abound. What are digital identities and how do they work? Will one credential work with another? How will they impact privacy and help address regulatory compliance?

In light of these and other pressing questions, Re:ID editors asked some of the leaders in the space to share their thoughts and vision for online ID.

Participating in the roundtable are: Jeremy Grant, senior executive adviser and manager of the National Program Office for NSTIC; Mollie Shields-Uehling, president and CEO at SAFE-BioPharma; Judith Spencer, former co-chair of the Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management Subcommittee at the U.S. General Services Administration and now CertiPath’s policy management authority chair; and Scott Rea, board member and director of operating authority at the Research and Education Bridge Certification Authority (REBCA).

CertiPath, SAFE-BioPharma and REBCA along with the U.S. Federal Bridge make up The Four Bridges Forum a network of inter-linked cyber communities. The Four Bridges Forum includes all U.S. government agencies as well as the aerospace and defense and research and education communities. 

Microsoft’s Windows 8 will include a feature called Live ID that will enable a user to store any password and then sync it across all other trusted Windows 8 machines, according to a report on theverge.com. Since the Live ID is the only password the user will have to remember, other passwords can be set to long, complex, and unique values that would be otherwise difficult to remember.

This is similar to services such as 1Password and LastPass, where a master password is used to sync login information across devices. It’s likely a user would have to stick with a Microsoft product in order to use the new system. 

Tools4ever has released the latest version of its single sign-on solution, E-SSOM, with new features including support for two-factor authentication and integration with access card systems.

These new features provide the primary login for single sign-on with additional security through the use of an access, smart card with a PIN code. Users can login by holding their access card against a card reader and entering a unique code, as opposed to the traditional single combination of a user name and password.