Personal IDM with Microsoft CardSpace

Although the idea of CardSpace, formerly codenamed InfoCard, has been around for a little while now, it and similar technologies are only starting to gather pace. CardSpace provides an interface for users to act as a gatekeeper between those requesting their identity information (i.e. service provider websites) and those who can validate that identity information (e.g. your government, bank, university, employer etc).

These are exciting times because there will be less passwords and passphrases to remember through the use of federated identities, improved privacy control by allowing you to choose what information to provide your service providers, and finally, an anticipated reduction in identity theft which is costing and inconveniencing millions.  Let’s take a look at what’s on the cards for personal identity management…

Identity Management (IDM)

The previous post discussed the purpose of RBAC in improving the administration of access control. This post discusses how RBAC is extended to address Identity Management (IDM).

A successful IDM programme will leverage the repository of role information produced for RBAC to gain even greater rewards including automated account provisioning/deprovisioning and workflows.

Role Based Access Control (RBAC)

Assigning access rights directly to users becomes unwieldy resulting in a lack of control and an excessive administrative overhead which holds back organisations.

This post will help you make sense of RBAC where business Roles (not just IT Groups) are used to facilitate access agility in a dynamic business environment.

Authentication: Passwords or Passphrases?

There is a great amount of discussion on passwords & passphrases and although this post will summarise old ground, what I would like to know is this; what is you preference? or rather, what would it be if you were given the choice!?

Survey http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/57556/password-or-passphrase-