The Liberty Alliance Project has announced the addition of eight new members, including Adobe Systems, DAI-Labor, Deny All, International Business Machines (IBM), M-Tech Information Technology, OpenNetwork Technologies, Senforce Technologies, and Telewest Broadband. There are now 162 active Liberty Alliance members.

Liberty Alliance is a global consortium developing an open federated identity standard and business tools for implementing federated identity and identity-based Web services. The Liberty Alliance federated network identity solution "supports all current and emerging network devices, offering businesses, governments, employees and consumers a convenient and secure way to control identity information as a key component in e-commerce, personalized data services, and web-based services."

The new members include leading identity management, application security, mobile and wireless security, telecommunications and research companies, as well as a world-leading digital imaging, design and document technology company.

Adobe Systems, joining the Liberty Alliance as a sponsor member, "plans to bring Liberty's benefits down to the document level. Working with the Liberty Alliance, Adobe will strengthen document security by adding federated identities, making it easier for businesses to employ document services for meeting compliance and regulatory mandates to protect individual privacy."

The Danish research institute company DAI-Labor and the application security company Deny All as new members "expand Liberty's reach into diverse markets and mark continued traction in established markets."

IBM's decision to join the Liberty Alliance is of special significance given the company's prominent identity management software solutions, including the Tivoli Identity Manager. In June 2004 IBM announced that it had successfully passed the Liberty Alliance conformance test with support for the Liberty 1.1 standards in the Tivoli Access Manager software family.

IBM has also announced a partnership with Orange network in which WebSphere middleware and Tivoli Access Manager, compliant with the Liberty 1.1 specification, would be used by 50 million mobile phone customers, giving them "the ability to sign on to accounts only once and securely access different mobile services or Websites, such as instant messaging, location-based services, games, online banking and e-mail."

Another identity management company joining Liberty is M-Tech Information Technology. M-Tech's comprehensive identity management suite "offers automated and self-service solutions for secure management of passwords, users and access privileges."

OpenNetwork Technologies has joined Liberty Alliance as a sponsor. The company specializes in "end-to-end identity management solutions, seeks to remedy the key pain points of today's enterprises while helping companies capitalize on existing technology investments.

Senforce Technologies has also joined Liberty Alliance as a sponsor, "recognizing the importance of a standards-based approach to federated authentication and seeking to actively contribute to building global awareness of privacy and privacy-friendly approaches. Senforce develops location-aware security software for mobile and wireless computers."

The new member Telewest Broadband is a telecommunications company that supplies broadband services to public and private sector markets in the UK.

The Liberty Alliance has also announced the appointment of Donal O'Shea as the consortium's Executive Director. The Executive Director position "has been created to focus on three areas: (1) to ensure that Liberty's purpose is clearly and widely communicated; (2) to broaden Liberty's global membership; (3) to increase end-user participation in the development of future specifications and business guidelines."

From the Liberty Alliance Announcements

"The Liberty Alliance, the global consortium developing an open federated identity standard and business tools for implementing federated identity and identity-based Web services, today announced that seven organizations have joined Liberty Alliance, including leading identity management, application security, mobile and wireless security, telecommunications and research companies, as well as the world-leading digital imaging, design and document technology company. Three companies joined the Liberty Alliance at the sponsor level, one at the affiliate level, one at the associate level, and two previous members have re-joined at the associate level.

New members have expressed significant interest in the Liberty Alliance Identity Web Services specifications to solve existing business needs, and plan to use the specifications for applications that are new to the Liberty Alliance, such as Digital Rights Management. Adobe Systems has joined the Liberty Alliance as a sponsor member, and plans to bring Liberty's benefits down to the document level. Working with the Liberty Alliance, Adobe will strengthen document security by adding federated identities, making it easier for businesses to employ document services for meeting compliance and regulatory mandates to protect individual privacy.

Additional new sponsor members include OpenNetwork Technologies, specializing in end-to-end identity management solutions, and Senforce Technologies, developing location-aware security software for mobile and wireless computers. OpenNetwork seeks to remedy the key pain points of today's enterprises while helping companies capitalize on existing technology investments. Senforce recognizes the importance of a standards-based approach to federated authentication and seeks to actively contribute to building global awareness of privacy and privacy-friendly approaches.

These new members bring to the Liberty Alliance a wealth of expertise in the identity management and mobile security markets, and demonstrate the Alliance's continued ability to attract industry leaders at a sponsor level. As industry leaders continue to understand that federation is the foundation to meaningful Web services, they seek out the Liberty Alliance as a forum to come together to build identity into electronic communications and transactions.

"Market leaders recognize that federation is the foundation to solid web services, and as such they want to participate in efforts to drive adoption of a standards-based identity architecture," said Donal O'Shea, Executive Director, Liberty Alliance. "This latest wave of new members was specifically drawn to the Liberty Alliance Identity Web Services specifications as a means to work more efficiently with business partners, customers, and employees. We welcome the added expertise and valuable contributions our newest members will bring to Liberty specifications and expert groups."

As sponsors, members help define, contribute and receive access to the latest federated identity technical specifications as well as business and policy guidelines, which helps them to create new business opportunities, increase security and reduce deployment costs. Liberty's membership includes many end-user companies in addition to vendors, and this structure has led to success in delivering standards that meet early adopters' real-world requirements, which plays a critical role in helping members to solidify business deals.

Additionally, telecommunications company Telewest Broadband, identity management companies M-Tech Information Technology and OpenNetwork Technologies, application security company Deny All, as well as Danish research institute company DAI-Labor, have joined the Liberty Alliance. These companies expand Liberty's reach into diverse markets, and mark continued traction in established markets. The total number of active Liberty Alliance members is 161...

Liberty Alliance Solidifies Growth with New Executive Director: The Liberty Alliance announced the appointment of Donal O'Shea as Executive Director. The Executive Director position has been created to focus on three areas: to ensure that Liberty's purpose is clearly and widely communicated; to broaden Liberty's global membership; and to increase end-user participation in the development of future specifications and business guidelines...

For the past 14 years, O'Shea has been an independent consultant based in Silicon Valley. He has worked with enterprise CIOs, IT users and vendors from around the world to help both with understanding new technologies and how to effectively deploy them. O'Shea started his career at IBM, and has held executive positions at Amdahl as well as the Open Software Foundation.

O'Shea's IT background in the United States, Europe and Asia positions him well to understand and represent the diverse interests of both Liberty Alliance's end user and vendor membership. O'Shea will also focus on continuing to grow the Liberty membership globally, and work closely with Liberty Alliance's Management Board, Expert Group Chairs and ISTO staff.

"Businesses have needed a solution to the growing identity threat for years," said Donal O'Shea, Executive Director, Liberty Alliance. "Liberty is the only open group addressing the business, policy and technical issues of identity, creating output to truly make digital identity useful. I look forward to helping the Alliance build on its momentum and continue to drive the adoption of open identity standards worldwide."

The latest Liberty-sponsored conformance test was held in Tokyo this week, from October 11 - 15, 2004. Products and services undergo four days of rigorous testing in order to earn the Liberty Alliance Interoperable mark. This was the first conformance event to test the Liberty Identity Web services specification ID-WSF 1.0, in addition to conformance testing for Liberty Federation specifications ID-FF 1.1 and 1.2. Liberty will announce the results of the conformance event in the next two weeks.

The Liberty Alliance is holding its fall sponsors meeting in Tokyo, featuring demonstrations of Liberty-enabled products and services from companies including AOL, Cash U, Ericsson, HP, NEC, Nokia, NTT, NTT Comware Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Sun, Trustgenix, and Vodafone. Additionally, a case study seminar, developer tutorial and open demonstrations will take place later in the day...

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..."