Keynote paper: Politics and identity management

Abstract

The field of identity management has changed dramatically in just a few years. Ten years ago we were huddled in the corner of cocktail parties excitedly discussing and dismissing X.509 certification. Five years ago we were begging for some attention from our governments, industries, and consumer protection institutions. Now, everyone seems to be in agreement that something must be done about identity management. This is indeed amoment of validation. Identity Management's time has come. If you thought it was going to get easier now that everyone is interested, you are in for a big surprise. As some companies like Microsoft have learned, as have any number of governments, implementing an identity policy is fraught with problems. In fact, the problem begins well before the implementation stage but rather with the process of developing an identity policy. © 2008 International Federation for Information Processing.