Whitepaper on Liberty Protocol and Identity Theft

Liberty Alliance White Paper Outlines Federated Identity's Ability to Reduce Identity Theft

San Francisco, CA, USA. February 23, 2004. RSA Security Conference.

The Liberty Alliance today announced the availability of a white paper calling out the growing problem of identity theft and detailing ways in which federated identity and Liberty's open standard can reduce online identity theft, its frequency and its potential impact on consumers. The white paper, The Liberty Alliance Protocol and Identity Theft White paper, also presents deployment recommendations for federated identity as a means to further mitigate risks.

Identity theft is a widespread and costly problem. Research analyst firm IDC reports that worldwide economic losses due to identity theft could reach $2 trillion by 2005 (April 2003). It's not only costly, it's time-consuming and a productivity drain on the economy. A U.S. Federal Trade Commission survey reports that in 2003 individuals spent an average of 30 hours to deal with their identity theft experience.

"Identity theft is extremely painful to consumers and very costly for businesses," said Piper Cole, chair of Liberty's public policy expert group and vice president for global public policy at Sun Microsystems. "It is costing merchants billions a year in charge-back fees and litigation and they are in need of an immediate solution to alleviate the bleed. Liberty's federated identity framework is a part of that solution."

Liberty's federated identity model, which distributes identity information across various trusted parties, is inherently more secure than a centralized model where all information is accessible in one location. If a centralized database is breached, the entire content of that database can be a goldmine for hackers and thieves. In addition to the federation safeguards, Liberty's framework also incorporates unique privacy controls and state-of-the-art security mechanisms to protect users and businesses.

Further details and deployment considerations for how federated identity and Liberty's open standard can alleviate identity theft can be found at: http://www.projectliberty.org/resources/whitepapers.

This white paper, like Liberty's member base, draws on insight from companies across industries and around the world. Editorial contributors to the paper include representatives from the following companies: Entrust Inc., Fidelity Investments, France Telecom, Nokia, NTT, Ping Identity Corporation, RSA Security, Sigaba, Sun Microsystems and Vodafone.

About the Liberty Alliance Project

The Liberty Alliance Project is an alliance of more than 150 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.

If you are interested in seeing the full list of Liberty Alliance members or are interested in becoming a member, please visit us at http://www.projectliberty.org.

Contacts

Europe
Suzanne Sinden
Ketchum PR
Tel: +44 20 7611 3598
Email: Suzanne.sinden@ketchum.com

North America
Tiffany van Gorder
Ketchum PR
Tel: +1 415 984 6192
Email: tiffany.vangorder@ketchum.com

[Source: http://www.projectliberty.org/press/releases/2004-02-23_theft.html]

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See other details in the news story "Liberty Publishes Federated Identity Documents on Mobile Deployments and Identity Theft." General references in "Liberty Alliance Specifications for Federated Network Identification and Authorization."

SEARCH Advanced Search ABOUT Site Map CP RSS Channel Contact Us Sponsoring CP About Our Sponsors NEWS Cover Stories Articles & Papers Press Releases CORE STANDARDS XML SGML Schemas XSL/XSLT/XPath XLink XML Query CSS SVG TECHNOLOGY REPORTS XML Applications General Apps Government Apps Academic Apps EVENTS LIBRARY Introductions FAQs Bibliography Technology and Society Semantics Tech Topics Software Related Standards Historic	Whitepaper on Liberty Protocol and Identity Theft Liberty Alliance White Paper Outlines Federated Identity's Ability to Reduce Identity Theft San Francisco, CA, USA. February 23, 2004. RSA Security Conference. The Liberty Alliance today announced the availability of a white paper calling out the growing problem of identity theft and detailing ways in which federated identity and Liberty's open standard can reduce online identity theft, its frequency and its potential impact on consumers. The white paper, The Liberty Alliance Protocol and Identity Theft White paper, also presents deployment recommendations for federated identity as a means to further mitigate risks. Identity theft is a widespread and costly problem. Research analyst firm IDC reports that worldwide economic losses due to identity theft could reach $2 trillion by 2005 (April 2003). It's not only costly, it's time-consuming and a productivity drain on the economy. A U.S. Federal Trade Commission survey reports that in 2003 individuals spent an average of 30 hours to deal with their identity theft experience. "Identity theft is extremely painful to consumers and very costly for businesses," said Piper Cole, chair of Liberty's public policy expert group and vice president for global public policy at Sun Microsystems. "It is costing merchants billions a year in charge-back fees and litigation and they are in need of an immediate solution to alleviate the bleed. Liberty's federated identity framework is a part of that solution." Liberty's federated identity model, which distributes identity information across various trusted parties, is inherently more secure than a centralized model where all information is accessible in one location. If a centralized database is breached, the entire content of that database can be a goldmine for hackers and thieves. In addition to the federation safeguards, Liberty's framework also incorporates unique privacy controls and state-of-the-art security mechanisms to protect users and businesses. Further details and deployment considerations for how federated identity and Liberty's open standard can alleviate identity theft can be found at: http://www.projectliberty.org/resources/whitepapers. This white paper, like Liberty's member base, draws on insight from companies across industries and around the world. Editorial contributors to the paper include representatives from the following companies: Entrust Inc., Fidelity Investments, France Telecom, Nokia, NTT, Ping Identity Corporation, RSA Security, Sigaba, Sun Microsystems and Vodafone. About the Liberty Alliance Project The Liberty Alliance Project is an alliance of more than 150 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. If you are interested in seeing the full list of Liberty Alliance members or are interested in becoming a member, please visit us at http://www.projectliberty.org. Contacts Europe Suzanne Sinden Ketchum PR Tel: +44 20 7611 3598 Email: Suzanne.sinden@ketchum.com North America Tiffany van Gorder Ketchum PR Tel: +1 415 984 6192 Email: tiffany.vangorder@ketchum.com [Source: http://www.projectliberty.org/press/releases/2004-02-23_theft.html] Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See other details in the news story "Liberty Publishes Federated Identity Documents on Mobile Deployments and Identity Theft." General references in "Liberty Alliance Specifications for Federated Network Identification and Authorization."