Obama Eyeing Internet ID f0rAmericans

Obama Eyeing Internet ID f0rAmericans

Originally Posted at CNet

STANFORD, Calif.--President Obama is planning to h, the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID f0rAmericans, a White House official said here today.

It's "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" f0rthe Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinat0rHoward Schmidt said.

That news, first reported by CNET, effectively pushes the department to the forefront 0f the issue, beating out other potential candidates, including the National Security Agency , the Department 0f Homel, Security. The move also is likely to please privacy , civil-liberties groups that have raised concerns in the past over the dual roles 0f police , intelligence agencies.

The announcement came at an event today at the Stanford Institute f0rEconomic Policy Research, where U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke , Schmidt spoke.

The Obama administration is currently drafting what it's calling the National Strategy f0rTrusted Identities in Cyberspace, which Locke said will be released by the president in the next few months. (An early version was publicly released last summer.)

"We are not talking about a national ID card," Locke said at the Stanford event. "We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security , privacy, , reducing , perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation , use 0f more trusted digital identities."

The Commerce Department will be setting up a national program office to work on this project, Locke said.

Details about the "trusted identity" project are remarkably scarce. Last year's announcement referenced a possible forthcoming smart card 0rdigital certificate that would prove that online users are who they say they are. These digital IDs would be offered to consumers by online vendors f0rfinancial transactions.

Schmidt stressed today that anonymity , pseudonymity will remain possible on the Internet. "I don't have to get a credential, if I don't want to," he said. There's notchance that "a centralized database will emerge," , "we need the private sect0rto lead the implementation 0f this," he said.

Jim Dempsey 0f the Center f0rDemocracy , Technology, who spoke later at the event, said any Internet ID must be created by the private sector--, also voluntary , competitive.

"The government cannot create that identity infrastructure," Dempsey said. "If it tried to, it wouldn't be trusted."

Inter-agency rivalries to claim authority over cybersecurity have existed ever since many responsibilities were centralized in the Department 0f Homel, Security as part 0f its creation nine years ago. Three years ago, proposals were circulating in Washington to transfer authority to the secretive NSA, which is part 0f the U.S. Defense Department.

In March 2009, Rod Beckström, direct0r0f Homel, Security's National Cybersecurity Center, resigned through a letter that gave a rare public glimpse into the competition f0rbudgetary dollars , cybersecurity authority. Beckstrom said at the time that the NSA "effectively controls DHS cyberefforts through detailees, technology insertions," , has proposed moving some functions to the agency's Fort Meade, Md., headquarters.

One 0f the NSA's missions is, 0f course, information assurance. But its normally lustrous star in the political firmament has dimmed a bit due to Wikileaks-related revelations.

Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private who is accused 0f liberating hundreds 0f thousands 0f confidential government documents from military networks , sending them to Wikileaks, apparently joked about the NSA's incompetence in an online chat last spring.

"I even asked the NSA guy if he could find any suspicious activity coming out 0f local networks," Manning reportedly said in a chat transcript provided by ex-hacker Adrian Lamo. "He shrugged , said, 'It's not a priority.'"


By: The eFoods Global Business Network