IP: Feds might use Microsoft product for online ID

[David Farber <dfarber () earthlink net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Hal DeVore <haldevore () acm org>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 14:23:51 
To: dave () farber net (Dr. Dave Farber)
Subject: Feds might use Microsoft product for online ID


Dr. Farber,

Something for the IP list

--Hal

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=134438173&zsection_id=268448455&slug=passport18&date=20020418

Feds might use Microsoft product for online ID
By Brier Dudley
Seattle Times technology reporter

Forget about a national ID card. Instead, the federal government
might use Microsoft's Passport technology to verify the online
identity of America's citizens, federal employees and businesses,
according to the White House technology czar.

On Sept. 30, the government plans to begin testing Web sites
where businesses can pay taxes and citizens can learn about
benefits and social services. It's also exploring how to verify
the identity of users so the sites can share private information.

Microsoft's Passport is being considered as a way to authenticate
users of the Web sites, said Mark Forman, associate director of
information technology at the White House.

"They are involved in that discussion,'' he said, adding that the
government has not yet selected which technology it will use.

Forman, who is overseeing the government's purchases of $100
billion worth of technology this year and next, was a featured
speaker at the Microsoft Government Leaders Conference in Seattle
this week.

Forman is a former Senate staffer who worked for IBM and Unisys
before he joined the Bush administration.

Describing himself as the government's chief information officer,
he said his priorities are to impose businesslike approaches for
technology deployments and to monitor improvements they bring.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, some politicians and business leaders
have called for a national identification card, but Forman said
that's not in the works. "We don't have any plans for a national
ID card," he said.

The White House is instead pursuing an "e-identification"
initiative, an effort to develop ways to authenticate people and
businesses online who already have government identification
numbers such as Social Security, business-registration and
employer-identification numbers.

At the government-leaders conference, attended by representatives
of 75 countries, Microsoft presented a blueprint for its
"e-government" strategy that suggests they use Passport to verify
the identity of visitors to their Web sites. It also suggested
that its bCentral business Web site could be used to process
business tax payments and that citizens could use its MSN Web
site to handle address changes and voter registration.

Governments have long been some of Microsoft's biggest
customers. Its desktop software for office workers and back-end
software running networks are widely by used by state and federal
agencies, and the company has developed Internet portals for the
United Kingdom, Mexico and other nations.

But getting the United States to use Passport to authenticate
its 285 million citizens online would be a coup for the Redmond
software company. It would also be a large step toward fulfilling
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' stated goal of getting everyone on
the Internet to use Passport as their sign-on tool.

Yesterday, appearing at the conference, Gates reiterated the
goal, saying he expects governments in many countries will find
it difficult getting to "critical mass" with authentication
systems they develop on their own. He said some governments may
opt to use companies such as Microsoft or America Online as "the
bank" that registers people for online usage.

Passport was introduced in 1999 and is the keystone of an array
of online services the company introduced a year ago, when Gates
revealed his ambitions for the service.

After privacy advocates attacked the plan and a coalition of
major corporations formed an alliance to develop standards for
authentication systems that would work together, Microsoft
toned down its approach. It now acknowledges that Passport will
co-exist with other tools.

Forman said his team has also been contacted by the coalition,
called the Liberty Alliance, and will meet with them at some
point.

The current version of Passport requires little personal
information other than an e-mail address, but a new, more secure
version expected by mid-2003 may be used to store sensitive data
on Microsoft's network.

Microsoft says it has 200 million people registered to use
Passport, most of whom signed up because Microsoft told them it
was needed to use other Microsoft services, such as its free
Hotmail e-mail service or Windows XP operating system. According
to Gartner, a research company based in Stamford, Conn., only 2
percent signed up because of the service's stated purpose: to
avoid having to use multiple identifications and passwords at
different Web sites.

Avivah Litan, vice president and research director at Gartner,
said expanding Passport benefits Microsoft by drawing more Web
traffic, making its sites more appealing to advertisers and
enabling the company to charge "click through" fees for online
sales executed using the service.

But the company may ultimately decide it's not worthwhile to
boost the service from a tool of convenience for consumers to a
verification service relied upon by businesses and government.

"Once you start vouching for identity, that makes you liable for
fraud, that makes you liable for identity theft," Litan said.

Also at the conference, Microsoft announced plans to bring
Internet access to government services to Mexico through a
network of kiosks developed with the company's technology.


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