Her Majesty’s Government is making a bold commitment that new digital transactions from central government departments such as the DWP’s Universal Credit will adopt a federated model for identity registration and credential authentication so UK citizens don’t have to create yet more user names and passwords. This approach will require close collaboration and dialogue with industry to create the needed schemes or trust frameworks that will organize the technical standards, policies and best practices needed to proceed.

European-based identity and security analyst firm, KuppingerCole, recently announced that OpenID Connect was awarded the 2012 European Identity and Cloud Award in the category for Best Innovation/New Standard. This recognition was largely based on OpenID Connect’s potential to significantly change digital identity using a simple interoperable Internet identity protocol to improve the way we interact with each other online.

I accepted an invitation from the Center for Identity at the University of Texas to participate in an upcoming panel at ID360: The Global Forum on Identity entitled, "The NSTIC Difference for Individuals, Businesses and Government."