Liberty Alliance Forms Services Expert Group and Completes Privacy Guidelines for Federated Identity

Liberty Alliance Finalizes Phase 2 Specifications and Privacy Guidelines for Federated Identity

Consortium Also Forms Services Expert Group for Phase 3 Development

Madrid, Spain. November 12, 2003.

The Liberty Alliance, a consortium formed to develop open, interoperable federated identity standards, today announced approval and publication of its Phase 2 specifications which round out the existing Liberty Federation Framework and cement the foundation for the Liberty Identity Web Services Framework. The final Liberty Phase 2 specifications are now available for download to be used for Liberty-enabled product and service development.

The Alliance also announced today initial member implementation plans for the Phase 2 specifications, a best practices Owners Manual to help Liberty implementers use the specifications in a privacy-compliant manner, and the formation of a new group, the Services Group, to develop service interface specifications that exploit the Liberty Identity Web Services Framework.

"The Liberty Alliance is unique among standards-setting organizations," said Michael Barrett, president of the Liberty Alliance and vice president for privacy and security at American Express. "While other forums are producing technology platforms for building web services, only the Liberty Alliance is devoting attention to not only building standards but providing the business and policy best practices that allow those standards to work across industries, across the globe and in a privacy and security-enhancing manner."

Ready for Deployment

The new Liberty Web Services Framework provides organizations with an open, standards-based way of delivering identity-based web services that can enable new revenue opportunities, cut internal IT costs and make web services more secure and private. Because the Liberty specifications are built on existing open industry standards such as SAML, SOAP, XML and WS-Security, they can be deployed and supported in any environment and maximize an organizations investment in non-proprietary standards.

In a related development, five companies announced today plans to support the Phase 2 Liberty specifications in existing or new products and services:

Phaos: The Phaos Liberty Identity Provider (IDP) and Phaos Liberty Service Provider (SP), J2EE Server components packages, support the Phase 2 Liberty Identity Federation Framework (ID-FF), allowing for identity/account linkage, simplified single sign-on and session management. Phaos plans to implement the Liberty Identity Web Services Framework (ID-WSF) into a product that will be available in Q2 of 2004.
Ping Identity: Plans to deploy a Phase 2 Liberty-enabled version of their leading open source SourceID Federation Platform in early 2004. SourceID provides world-class tools, applications, and infrastructure for federated identity management. Currently, there have been more than 2,500 downloads of SourceID from global 1000 corporations.
Sun Microsystems: Plans to immediately expand the existing Liberty functionality of the Sun Java Enterprise System through its Java System Identity Server to include support for Liberty's Phase 2 specifications. [See the announcement.]
Trustgenix: Trustgenix IdentityBridge, available now, supports the Liberty Phase 2 standards and provides federated identity management (including single sign-on, provisioning and privilege management in the extended enterprise) that complements existing identity management systems.
Vodafone: Vodafone plans to deploy Phase 1 and Phase 2 Liberty standards in its intranet and commercial service platforms across Vodafone. Vodafone will include the specifications as part of platform releases in 2004-2005.

Privacy and Security

The Liberty specifications are built to enable individual implementers to choose the privacy policies and data management options that best fit their region, industry and company policy. To assist implementers in developing identity-based web services that are secure, privacy enhancing and in compliance with local laws, the Alliance released today its final Privacy and Security Best Practices guide.

"Privacy and security are fundamental components of the identity issue, and Liberty's work has been developed with this in mind," said Piper Cole, chair of Liberty's Public Policy Expert Group and vice president of global public policy for Sun Microsystems. "Privacy is good for business and Liberty's mission is to provide the technology tools and business guidance to ensure good privacy."

Liberty Alliance's Privacy and Security Best Practices document offers information regarding privacy laws and fair information practices in various regions and sectors, specific suggestions to combat common network vulnerabilities inherent in the Internet and the Alliance's recommendations regarding privacy and security. To download this document, please see:

http://www.projectliberty.org/specs/final_privacy_security_best_practices.pdf

Phase 3 and Beyond

For two years, the Liberty Alliance's Technology, Public Policy and Business & Marketing Expert Groups have worked together to develop a complete solution for federated identity. The Liberty Alliance has created two additional Expert Groups to focus on driving use of the Phase 1 and 2 specifications -- the Conformance Expert Group and the Services Group.

In October, the Alliance introduced a conformance program to validate products and services that have successfully implemented the Liberty Alliance federated identity standards. This program, under the management of Liberty's new Conformance Expert Group, will help vendors, integrators and implementers ensure interoperability between Liberty-enabled solutions.

Today, the Liberty Alliance announced a new Services Group formed to develop a number of interoperable service interface specifications that utilize the new Liberty Identity Web Services Framework and address the needs of specific industries, applications and business models. All Liberty Alliance members can participate in the development of these new "Identity Service Interface Specifications (ID-SIS)," which will be Phase 3 of the Liberty specifications. Additional SIS groups will be formed as driven by the Liberty Alliance membership.

The first two available Service Interface Specifications released today include an ID-Personal Profile that defines a standard template for basic registration information so organizations have a common language to speak to each other and offer interoperable services. The second is an ID-Employee Profile that defines similar information but targeted to internal employees.

In Phase 3 the Alliance will develop the following additional Service Interface Specifications:

Contact Book Service Interface: A common method for users to manage and share personal or business contacts regardless of contact book provider, enabling service providers to access or automatically update, at the user's request, information like billing or shipping address.
Geo-location Service Interface: An interoperable way to automatically identify a person's location, at the user's request, to provide services like weather, news, travel or currency updates or directions to a chosen location.
Presence Service Interface: A common way for users to share presence information, such as whether they are online, offline, on the phone or in a meeting, with any service provider for the purpose of communicating availability.

These new specifications will be released on a rolling basis. For more information on how to become a member or participate in the development of the service interface specifications, please contact info@projectliberty.org.

About the Liberty Alliance Project

The Liberty Alliance Project (www.projectliberty.org) is an alliance of more than 160 companies, non-profit and government organizations from around the globe. The consortium is committed to developing an open standard for federated network identity that supports all current and emerging network devices. Federated identity offers businesses, governments, employees and consumers a more convenient and secure way to control identity information in today's digital economy, and is a key component in driving the use of e-commerce, personalized data services, as well as web-based services. Membership is open to all commercial and non-commercial organizations.

[Note also: "Sun's Java Enterprise System Provides Immediate Support for Next Generation of Liberty Alliance Specifications. Sun Java System Identity Server Delivers Support for Liberty Alliance Phase 2 Specification for Secure Federated Identity. Early Access Available for Qualified Customers."]

Contacts

Suzanne Sinden
Ketchum for Liberty Alliance
Tel: +44 207 611 3598
Suzanne.sinden@ketchum.com

Tiffany van Gorder
Ketchum for Liberty Alliance
Tel: +1 415-984 6192
Tiffany.vangorder@ketchum.com

[Source: http://www.projectliberty.org/press/releases/2003-11-12.html]

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See details in the news story: "Liberty Alliance Publishes Final Phase 2 Specifications and Previews Phase 3." General references in "Liberty Alliance Specifications for Federated Network Identification and Authorization."

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The Liberty Alliance, a consortium formed to develop open, interoperable federated identity standards, today announced approval and publication of its Phase 2 specifications which round out the existing Liberty Federation Framework and cement the foundation for the Liberty Identity Web Services Framework. The final Liberty Phase 2 specifications are now available for download to be used for Liberty-enabled product and service development. The Alliance also announced today initial member implementation plans for the Phase 2 specifications, a best practices Owners Manual to help Liberty implementers use the specifications in a privacy-compliant manner, and the formation of a new group, the Services Group, to develop service interface specifications that exploit the Liberty Identity Web Services Framework. "The Liberty Alliance is unique among standards-setting organizations," said Michael Barrett, president of the Liberty Alliance and vice president for privacy and security at American Express. "While other forums are producing technology platforms for building web services, only the Liberty Alliance is devoting attention to not only building standards but providing the business and policy best practices that allow those standards to work across industries, across the globe and in a privacy and security-enhancing manner." Ready for Deployment The new Liberty Web Services Framework provides organizations with an open, standards-based way of delivering identity-based web services that can enable new revenue opportunities, cut internal IT costs and make web services more secure and private. Because the Liberty specifications are built on existing open industry standards such as SAML, SOAP, XML and WS-Security, they can be deployed and supported in any environment and maximize an organizations investment in non-proprietary standards. In a related development, five companies announced today plans to support the Phase 2 Liberty specifications in existing or new products and services: Phaos: The Phaos Liberty Identity Provider (IDP) and Phaos Liberty Service Provider (SP), J2EE Server components packages, support the Phase 2 Liberty Identity Federation Framework (ID-FF), allowing for identity/account linkage, simplified single sign-on and session management. Phaos plans to implement the Liberty Identity Web Services Framework (ID-WSF) into a product that will be available in Q2 of 2004. Ping Identity: Plans to deploy a Phase 2 Liberty-enabled version of their leading open source SourceID Federation Platform in early 2004. SourceID provides world-class tools, applications, and infrastructure for federated identity management. Currently, there have been more than 2,500 downloads of SourceID from global 1000 corporations. Sun Microsystems: Plans to immediately expand the existing Liberty functionality of the Sun Java Enterprise System through its Java System Identity Server to include support for Liberty's Phase 2 specifications. [See the announcement.] Trustgenix: Trustgenix IdentityBridge, available now, supports the Liberty Phase 2 standards and provides federated identity management (including single sign-on, provisioning and privilege management in the extended enterprise) that complements existing identity management systems. Vodafone: Vodafone plans to deploy Phase 1 and Phase 2 Liberty standards in its intranet and commercial service platforms across Vodafone. Vodafone will include the specifications as part of platform releases in 2004-2005. Privacy and Security The Liberty specifications are built to enable individual implementers to choose the privacy policies and data management options that best fit their region, industry and company policy. To assist implementers in developing identity-based web services that are secure, privacy enhancing and in compliance with local laws, the Alliance released today its final Privacy and Security Best Practices guide. "Privacy and security are fundamental components of the identity issue, and Liberty's work has been developed with this in mind," said Piper Cole, chair of Liberty's Public Policy Expert Group and vice president of global public policy for Sun Microsystems. "Privacy is good for business and Liberty's mission is to provide the technology tools and business guidance to ensure good privacy." Liberty Alliance's Privacy and Security Best Practices document offers information regarding privacy laws and fair information practices in various regions and sectors, specific suggestions to combat common network vulnerabilities inherent in the Internet and the Alliance's recommendations regarding privacy and security. To download this document, please see: http://www.projectliberty.org/specs/final_privacy_security_best_practices.pdf Phase 3 and Beyond For two years, the Liberty Alliance's Technology, Public Policy and Business & Marketing Expert Groups have worked together to develop a complete solution for federated identity. The Liberty Alliance has created two additional Expert Groups to focus on driving use of the Phase 1 and 2 specifications -- the Conformance Expert Group and the Services Group. In October, the Alliance introduced a conformance program to validate products and services that have successfully implemented the Liberty Alliance federated identity standards. This program, under the management of Liberty's new Conformance Expert Group, will help vendors, integrators and implementers ensure interoperability between Liberty-enabled solutions. Today, the Liberty Alliance announced a new Services Group formed to develop a number of interoperable service interface specifications that utilize the new Liberty Identity Web Services Framework and address the needs of specific industries, applications and business models. All Liberty Alliance members can participate in the development of these new "Identity Service Interface Specifications (ID-SIS)," which will be Phase 3 of the Liberty specifications. Additional SIS groups will be formed as driven by the Liberty Alliance membership. The first two available Service Interface Specifications released today include an ID-Personal Profile that defines a standard template for basic registration information so organizations have a common language to speak to each other and offer interoperable services. The second is an ID-Employee Profile that defines similar information but targeted to internal employees. In Phase 3 the Alliance will develop the following additional Service Interface Specifications: Contact Book Service Interface: A common method for users to manage and share personal or business contacts regardless of contact book provider, enabling service providers to access or automatically update, at the user's request, information like billing or shipping address. Geo-location Service Interface: An interoperable way to automatically identify a person's location, at the user's request, to provide services like weather, news, travel or currency updates or directions to a chosen location. Presence Service Interface: A common way for users to share presence information, such as whether they are online, offline, on the phone or in a meeting, with any service provider for the purpose of communicating availability. These new specifications will be released on a rolling basis. For more information on how to become a member or participate in the development of the service interface specifications, please contact info@projectliberty.org. About the Liberty Alliance Project The Liberty Alliance Project (www.projectliberty.org) is an alliance of more than 160 companies, non-profit and government organizations from around the globe. The consortium is committed to developing an open standard for federated network identity that supports all current and emerging network devices. Federated identity offers businesses, governments, employees and consumers a more convenient and secure way to control identity information in today's digital economy, and is a key component in driving the use of e-commerce, personalized data services, as well as web-based services. Membership is open to all commercial and non-commercial organizations. [Note also: "Sun's Java Enterprise System Provides Immediate Support for Next Generation of Liberty Alliance Specifications. Sun Java System Identity Server Delivers Support for Liberty Alliance Phase 2 Specification for Secure Federated Identity. Early Access Available for Qualified Customers."] Contacts Suzanne Sinden Ketchum for Liberty Alliance Tel: +44 207 611 3598 Suzanne.sinden@ketchum.com Tiffany van Gorder Ketchum for Liberty Alliance Tel: +1 415-984 6192 Tiffany.vangorder@ketchum.com [Source: http://www.projectliberty.org/press/releases/2003-11-12.html] Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See details in the news story: "Liberty Alliance Publishes Final Phase 2 Specifications and Previews Phase 3." General references in "Liberty Alliance Specifications for Federated Network Identification and Authorization."