• Registration open for Kantara Initiative Meeting April 13-14, 2012 at Fraunhofer SIT offices, Garching, near Munich, Germany
• Spotlight on Lucy Lynch
• Congratulations on re-election and new leadership for Kantara Initiative’s Leadership Council
• Announcing re-election and new leadership for Kantara Initiative’s eGovernment Work Group
• Announcing re-election for Kantara Initiative’s Federation Interoperability Work Group
• UMA Webinar: Dec 14, 2011 – you can review the slides and the webinar recording
• UMA WG are holding an UMA tweet chat, focusing on technical details (spec, implementation, interop, deployment), on Wednesday, February 8, 2012, at 9-10am PT
• Kantara Initiative grants Accreditation to Deloitte & Touche LLP, and, eValid8, and Approves Verizons Universal Identity Service at LoA3

Industry events – Kantara members receive a discount at the following events, contact Dervla O’Reilly for the discount codes dervla[at]kantarainitiative[dot]org:
- The Smart Card Alliance 2012 Payments Summit - Feb 8-10, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
- HIMSS HIE Symposium 2012 – Feb. 20, 2012, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Kantara Face-to-Face Meeting - April 13-14 - kindly facilitated by Fraunhofer SIT at their meeting facility, Garching, near Munich, Germany
- Kantara Summit at EIC Conference (detailed agenda to follow) – April 17, Munich Germany

Kantara Initiative Membership Details
- Membership Details & Membership Levels
- Membership Forms:  Membership Agreement & Membership Information Form

Registration is open for the Kantara Initiative meeting April 13-14, 2012. Many thanks to Fraunhofer SIT who will facilitate us at their meeting offices in Garching, just outside Munich, Germany.

We invite you to join us at our 2-day event where Kantara’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Leadership Council (LC), Discussion Groups (DGs) and Working Groups (WGs) will convene.

Early bird registration is available until March 16, 2012. With our pricing structure, you can sign up for 1 day or the full 2-day event.

Please Note: Non-member Independents/Contributors/Students who register by the early-bird deadline are entitled to credit their meeting registration towards an Individual Contributor level membership.

Review the current agenda and specific event logistics in detail at our events wiki space.

Registration: http://kantaramunichmtg.eventbrite.com

We look forward to seeing you in Germany.

Lucy Lynch is the Secretary & Treasurer for Kantara Initiative. Lucy has been involved with Kantara since it’s inception in 2009.

Lucy is Director of Trust and Identity Initiatives with the Internet Society (ISOC) and her role is to examine some of the major issues affecting the Internet and to develop projects that will address those problems. Prior to joining the Internet Society, Lucy worked at the University of Oregon as a member of the Academic Computing and Network Applications Group. Her assignments with the University included work with the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) – a long-time partner with the Internet Society in bringing network technology and education to the developing world.

In addition, she has been an active participant in both the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and recently completed a term as Chair of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC).

Lucy holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communications from the University of Oregon and has a long history of service in non-profit organizations ranging from mental health counseling to a hands-on science museum. She has been a grant writer, project manager, and a computer programmer. She also once managed the Flying Karamazov Brothers (www.fkb.com/) and hopes to put that unique non-linear managerial experience to good use as she directs new efforts for the Internet Society.

Lucy lives in Eugene, Oregon, USA and travels extensively for work. When not traveling Lucy likes reading books and enjoying the outdoors.

We’re very happy to have Lucy leadership and knowledge.

Kantara Initiative and the community would like to thank John Bradley as Chair for his hard work and leadership over the past year in spearheading the work of the Leadership Council alongside Pete Palmer and Lara Zimberoff.  John will be missed, although we’re glad to continue working closely with him as we move Kantara’s work forward.

Please join us in congratulating new leadership of the Leadership Council:

• Chairman: Pete Palmer
• Vice Chairman: Rich Furr

We’d also like to take the opportunity to thank Lara Zimberoff, Secretary, for her continued support to the group.

Congratulations!

Please join us in congratulating re-elected leadership of Kantara Initiative’s eGovernment Work Group

• Rainer Hoerbe, Chairman
• Colin Wallis, Vice Chairman
• Keith Uber, Secretary

The eGovernment Work Group is responsible for:

• Facilitating collaboration and discussion among Kantara members with an interest in eGovernment identity management applications and services
• Acting as a forum to discuss best practices by government organizations on national, regional and municipal levels
• Presenting “a government view” into other Kantara Initiative Work Groups so that these views may be taken into account in the development of Kantara Initiative Policy – Recommendations and Specifications for future contribution to an appropriate Standards Setting Organization
• Promoting the development, adoption and support for eGovernment deployment profiles of open specifications

Many thanks to Colin Wallis for leading the Work Group over the past few years. We look forward to his continued support alongside Rainer Hoerbe and Keith Uber in moving the work of this group and Kantara forward.

Join the eGoverment Work Group: http://signup.kantarainitiative.org/?selectedGroup=15
Review the Charter: http://kantarainitiative.org/confluence/display/eGov/Charter
Mail list and Archives: http://kantarainitiative.org/pipermail/wg-egov/
Copyright Policy: Kantara Initiative IPR Policy – Creative Commons Share-Alike Attribution

Please join us in congratulating re-elected leadership of Kantara Initiative’s Federation Interoperability Work Group

John Bradley will serve as the group Co-chair for another one-year term.  John is also joined by Co-chair Bob Morgan of University of Washington who has been active for numerous years.

The Federation Interoperability Work Group was formed within the Kantara Initiative to profile existing specifications to define an interoperable trust infrastructure for use by parties participating in Trust Frameworks. This will allow entities to determine the certification status and configuration parameters of entities outside of their local federation.

Join the Federation Interoperability Work Group: http://signup.kantarainitiative.org/?selectedGroup=24
Review the Charter: http://kantarainitiative.org/confluence/display/fiwg/Charter
Mail list and Archives: https://groups.google.com/group/wg-fi?hl=en
Copyright Policy: Kantara Initiative IPR Policy – Creative Commons Share-Alike Attribution

We offer our support and congratulations again to John & Bob as they continue to carry the work of the group and Kantara forward.

“What is UMA and why do we need it?”

In a nutshell, User-Managed Access (UMA) is…

UMA is needed by…

• Individuals, to give them a “personal data concierge” that handles requests for access to their online data, content, and services
• Websites, to enable them to offer sophisticated data-sharing features to their users without having to implement those features natively
• Online identity providers, to offer their users the ability to set access policies from a single place even if those users engage with dozens or hundreds of sites and apps on a regular basis

This webinar will…

• Discuss real-life use cases for UMA
• Demonstrate UMA implementations
• Review UMA’s architecture and its relationship to the OAuth and OpenID Connect specifications

Register now!
UMA WG details

Dec. 5, 2011 Piscataway, NJ - Kantara Initiative announces the accreditation of two assessors, Deloitte & Touche LLP [1] and eValid8 [2], who are now qualified to perform assessments for the Kantara Identity Assurance Framework for both the Identity Credential and Access Management (ICAM) and non-ICAM Trust Frameworks.

Additionally, Kantara Initiative announced the first high Level of Assurance (LoA) Kantara Service Approval (recognized as ICAM Certification) has been granted to Verizon’s Universal Identity Service at LoA 1-3 non-PKI for use to access U.S. Government online services. (See related press release [3].)

“eValid8 welcomes the challenge of aligning industry providers with this unilateral approach to assuring that business, governments, and end users can conduct business with equivalent credentials” said Brian Dilley, President. eValid8^® offers audited solutions such as TrustedCA^®, TrustedRA^®, and Kantara Initiative Accreditation for trusted identity assurance.

“With this certification, Verizon is at the forefront of driving a new identity ecosystem that better protects users and organizations,” said Peter Tippett, vice president of Verizon. “Using our Kantara-approved credentials, we can offer businesses and government agencies more choices in securing their digital identities with our easy to deploy and use identity services that have now been certified to Level 3.”

The ICAM program is seen by industry veterans as the first implementation of a model to build the Identity Ecosystem which is described in the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), which aim to create a trusted Identity Ecosystem that uses trusted-industry issued credentials to access U.S. Federal Government Services. Trust is measured via the certification programs of U.S. Government Trust Framework Providers (TFPs). Kantara Initiative is the only US Government TFP authorized to perform Service Approvals at Levels of Assurance (LoAs) 1, 2 and 3 (non-PKI) of services to connect industry-issued credentials with US Government Services.

The market for high LoA credentials has since further developed by an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo [4] issued to U.S. Chief Information Officers (CIOs) that requires LoA 1 certified credentials be implemented for new government service web sites within 90 days of the first TFP final approval or when existing websites are enhanced or upgraded and LoA 2 and 3 non-crypto certified credentials be adopted for higher value U.S. Government agency services within the near term.

The Kantara Identity Assurance Accreditation and Service Approval Program assesses applicants against its strict criteria ensuring, among other things, alignment with the OMB 04-04 and NIST 800-63 LoAs [5] and grants successful candidates of the program the right to use the Kantara Initiative Mark, a symbol of trustworthy identity and credential management services at specified Assurance Levels.

Kantara Initiative is currently accepting appropriate applications to Accredit Assessors and Approve Credential Service Providers (CSPs) (a.k.a. Identity Providers – IdPs) to issue certified credentials for the ICAM Trust Framework. Additionally, the broad and unique cross section of industry and multi-jurisdictional stakeholders within the Kantara Membership, have the opportunity to create profiles that add additional criteria to the core Identity Assurance Framework for applicability to their specific communities of trust.

For further information or to become Kantara Accredited or Approved (ICAM Certified), please visit our Kantara Accreditation and Approval Center [6] and contact support@kantarainitiative.org.

About Kantara Initiative:
Kantara Initiative is a global, open, public-private, technology-agnostic forum comprised of identity ecosystem stakeholders. Its inspired mission is to promote federation interoperability and harmonization; to develop policy frameworks for operational interoperability and to provide certification and assessment programs to grow trust in the standards, products, and service deployments. For more information about getting involved in Kantara Initiative, visit http://kantarainitiative.org.

[1]   http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Services/audit-enterprise-risk-services/finance-operations-controls-transformation/index.htm

[2]   http://www.evalid8.com

[3]   http://www.verizonbusiness.com/about/news/displaynews.xml?newsid=25849&mode=vzlong

[4]   http://www.cio.gov/documents/OMBReqforAcceptingExternally_IssuedIdCred10-6-2011.pdf

[5]  http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-63/SP800-63V1_0_2.pdf

[6]   http://bit.ly/Kantara_Assurance_Accreditation_Approval

Catch up on recent Kantara Initiative updates and activities:

• Spotlight on Leif Johansson
• Announcing re-election and new leadership for Kantara Initiative’s Identity Assurance Work Group
• Announcing re-election and new leadership for Kantara Initiative’s Information Sharing Work Group
• New leadership for Kantara Initiative’s Attribute Management Discussion Group
• Kantara Initiative – the first Approved US ICAM LoA 1, 2, and 3 non-PKI Trust Framework Provider
• Video and slide presentation from Share experience in Identity Federation and Electronic Identities – Sept. 28, 2011, Sweden
• Presentations from Kantara Initiative Identity Summit at Smart Card Alliance Conference, Nov. 1, 2011
• Share experience in identity federation and electronic identities – Sept. 28, 2011, Sweden
• Kantara announces Attribute Management Discussion Group formation
• Industry events – Kantara members receive a discount at the following events, contact Dervla O’Reilly for the discount codes dervla[at]kantarainitiative[dot]org:
  - Takedowncon 2 – Mobile & Wireless Security – Dec. 2-7, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
  - The Smart Card Alliance 2012 Payments Summit - Feb 8-10, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
  - HIMSS HIE Symposium 2012 – Feb. 20, 2012, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
  - Kantara Face-to-Face Meeting - April 13-14, TUM’s University, near Munich, Germany – more details coming soon

Leif Johansson is the Chair of the Kantara Initiative Assurance Review Board and sits on Kantara Initiative Assurance Review Board Kantara’s Interoperability Review Board.

He is also the co-chair of the IETF ABFAB working group, a member of Internet2 MACE & Terena ECAM. He is the SUNET contact for the Kantara Initiative as well as a contributor/owner of various open source-projects.

Leif comes from Sweden and is a system specialist at NORDUNet A/S working on digital identity and federation for SUNET (the Swedish University Network) and the Swedish government.

Leif is the chair of the ABFAB working group in the IETF is the author of several internet drafts and an active participant in various Terena activities.

Leif is a participant in other Terena activities such as SCS, refeds,TCS, tf-ace, tf-emc2 and tf-mnm. He is the author of internet-drafts on Kerberos server information models and HTTP authentication using GSS-API.

Leif is a member of the technical team for the Swedish Alliance for Middleware Infrastructure (SWAMI) and a member of the technical reference group of the Swedish University Network (SUNET). He is also part of the operations team for the SWAMI identity federation, responsible for the technical operation of SAML federation.

Leif has a background in mathematics and has co-authored papers on topics ranging from identity management to scientific papers in mathematics where he has conducted research in the field of A_{\inf} spaces.

Leif lives just north of Stockholm with his wife and 3 kids and enjoys (cooking) good food. He also likes to sample local brews when traveling.

We’re proud to have Leif’s participation and leadership – his knowledge and experience is appreciated.