Piscataway, NJ, July 27, 2010 – Open Identity Exchange (OIX) and Kantara Initiative announced today that they will begin collaborating on digital trust framework development to build and promote adoption of a robust online trust ecosystem. Digital trust frameworks enable trust in transactions such as logins, registrations, and online eCommerce by allowing digital identity credentials produced by one site to be accepted at other sites.
Kantara Initiative and OIX, the industry’s two leading organizations focused on trust framework infrastructure, have agreed to the following high-level goals for collaboration:

1. Develop a joint approach to federation services and trust framework certification that takes advantage of the complementary features of the Kantara Initiative Identity Assurance Framework (IAF) and the OIX Trust Framework Platform.
2. Develop technology and policy best practice guidelines in response to growing needs for trust frameworks spanning all types of networks, transactions, and jurisdictions around the globe.
3. Identify additional trust framework infrastructure, operations, and testing areas of synergy.

The two organizations have agreed to jointly submit their own certification assessment results into an operational database which would be hosted by OIX to provide a consolidated view of certification status. An early version of the operational database instance will be a part of the Burton Catalyst Open Identity for Business demo event in July 2010.

Additionally, Kantara Initiative will begin offering their IAF Profiles as trust framework options within the OIX Trust Framework Platform which will allow OIX member companies to obtain certification against IAF Profiles and have these certifications included directly in the OIX Certification Listing Service.

To further develop this collaborative relationship, representatives of the Kantara Initiative will join the OIX Advisory Board, and OIX will join the Kantara Initiative Identity Assurance Working Group (IAWG).

“Kantara Initative’s collaboration with OIX represents a significant advancement in identity management that will serve to promote security and trust to various digital identity stakeholders (Identity Service Providers, Credential Service Providers, Relying Parties and End-Users, Federation Operators) across multiple technology platforms,” says Matthew Gardiner, Kantara Initiative president and director, CA Technologies Security customer solutions unit.

“Our collaboration effort with Kantara Initiative shows how identity services can enable business at multiple levels of assurance and across multiple protocols and multiple federations,” said Don Thibeau, OIX president. “The governmental efforts to offer open identity solutions, such as the White House’s recently announced National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), are one tangible example of this.”

“Reliable identity information is increasingly critical for electronic business. Until recently, there was no way for an enterprise to know whether identity information provided by third parties was trustworthy and accurate. The US ICAM Trust Framework Provider Adoption Process has provided the foundation for an ecosystem of trustworthy identity providers, but ICAM’s efforts will only be effective if trust framework providers and identity providers adopt it.” said Bob Blakley, VP and Research Director, Burton Group.

”The collaboration between Kantara Initiative and OIX marks a significant milestone on the ongoing work to ensure the highest levels of trust across all assurance levels for today’s online transactions,” said Andrew Nash, Sr. Director of Identity Services PayPal.

About Open Identity Exchange
The Open Identity Exchange (OIX) is a neutral, technology agnostic, nonprofit provider of certification trust frameworks for online identity. Its certification credentials can be used across multiple sites, jurisdictions and networks. OIX was founded by grants from the OpenID and Information Card Foundations and support from companies including Google, PayPal, AT&T, Equifax, VeriSign, Verizon, and CA technologies. For more information, visit www.openidentityexchange.org.

About Kantara Initiative
Kantara Initiative is a global, open, public-private, technology-agnostic forum comprised of identity ecosystem stakeholders. Kantara Initiative’s inspired mission is to promote technical 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. Kantara Initiative freely provides the governance and resources whereby diverse members of the ecosystem successfully collaborate on a diverse portfolio of common policy frameworks, technical specifications and deployment guidelines driven by the identity community, industry and governments from around the world. For more information about getting involved in Kantara Initiative, visit www.kantarainitiative.org.

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Media Contacts
Michelle Hunt
Kantara Initiative
Michelle.Hunt@ieee-isto.org
+1 732 981-3434

John Ehrig
Open Identity Exchange
jehrig@inventures.com
+1 925 275-6677

• Authorization Standards Workshop at Burton Catalyst San Diego, July 27, 2010, 12:30-2:30pm
• Kantara Initiative Collaborating with Open Identity Exchange, OpenID Foundation and others on Multi-Protocol Federation Interoperability Demonstration
• Kantara Initiative Meeting, October 19-21, 2010 at Orange-FT campus, Paris, France
• Announcing leadership of Kantara Initiative’s Federation Interoperability Work Group (FIWG)
• Kantara Initiative’s association sponsorship at pii2010
• Announcing leadership of Kantara Initiative’s Identity and Access Services Work Group (IASWG)
• Kantara Initiative announces eValid8 as their first Accredited Assessor
• SAML 2.0 Full Matrix Test Event Registration Now Open
• Kantara Initiative Overview – Secure ID podcast by J. Trent Adams
• Industry events – contact Dervla O’Reilly regarding discounted conference rates or information regarding the following conferences Kantara is co-sponsoring: pii2010, August 17-19, Seattle, Hacker Halted October 9-15 Miami, ISSE 2010 Oct. 5-7 Berlin, WHIT 6.0 Nov. 8-10 Washington D.C., Gartner Identity & Access Management Summit November 15-16 San Diego

Authorization Standards Workshop Also Being Held at Burton Group Catalyst Conference North America 2010.

Piscataway, NJ, July 19, 2010 – Kantara Initiative, an open forum providing identity ecosystem members the opportunity to collaboratively address harmonization and interoperability challenges that exist between identity systems, Web 2.0 applications and services, and Web-based initiatives, is participating in an Open Identity for Business Interop demonstration and an Authorization Standards Workshop at this year’s Burton Catalyst event in San Diego, on July 27.

Kantara Initiative is collaborating with members of the OpenID Foundation, the Information Card Foundation, the Open Identity Exchange, and Identity Commons to demonstrate uses of open identity as a business enabler in the Open Identity for Business Interop. This event will showcase:

• Practical applications of the work activity of the US Identity, Credential and Access Management (ICAM) Subcommittee, National Institutes of Health, and their partners
• Examples of using different levels of assurance across multiple trust federations
• Illustrations of how open identity is moving to mobile devices and enabling new types of mobile applications
• New browser-based applications that use identity services to automate cross-site user experiences

“Today’s organizations have new choices when it comes to working with the identities of their partners, citizens, suppliers, and customers – choices that can reduce costs, increase trust and create new business opportunities,” says Don Thibeau, Chairman of the Open Identity Exchange. “The Open Identity Exchange is collaborating with the Kantara Initiative and others on the Open Identity for Business Interop featured at this year’s Catalyst conference to show tangible examples of how identity services can enable business at multiple levels of assurance and across multiple protocols and multiple federations.”

“The use cases highlighted during this workshop held at Burton Catalyst are excellent examples of how Kantara Initiative works openly with the Identity community to fulfill its mission to foster interoperability, innovation and broad adoption through the development of open identity specifications and education programs,” added John Bradley, an independent ID management consultant and chairman of Kantara Initiative’s Federation Interoperability working group.

Kantara Initiative is also spearheading the Authorization Standards Workshop to be held on July 27th at 12:30pm PDT. This interactive workshop will explore the most current developments and trends in authorization standards, including OAuth (a community initiative now being standardized within the IETF), User-Managed Access (being developed within the Kantara Initiative) and XACML (an OASIS standard). Workshop attendees will also examine some authorization use cases that may drive new standards requirements.

“A combination of presentations, panels and demonstrations given by Kantara Initiative members will demonstrate how existing and emerging authorization standards fit into the enterprise and social web infrastructure,” says Paul Madsen, identity management researcher, NTT and Kantara Initiative chairman for Concordia DG and ID-WSF Evolution WG.

If you are interested in attending the Authorization Standards Workshop, please RSVP to Dervla O’Reilly, dervla[at]kantarainitiative[dot]org.

About Kantara Initiative
Kantara Initiative is a global, open, public-private, technology-agnostic forum comprised of identity ecosystem stakeholders. Kantara initiative’s inspired mission is to promote technical 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. Kantara Initiative freely provides the governance and resources whereby diverse members of the ecosystem successfully collaborate on a diverse portfolio of common policy frameworks, technical specifications and deployment guidelines driven by the identity community, industry and governments from around the world. For more information about getting involved in Kantara Initiative, visit http://kantarainitiative.org/.

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Media Contact
Michelle Hunt
Kantara Initiative
Michelle.Hunt@ieee-isto.org
+1 732 981-3434

We invite you to join us for the third Kantara Initiative Meeting, Tuesday-Thursday, October 19-21. This event is kindly hosted by Orange-FT at their Issy les Moulineaux campus in Southern Paris.

Registration is now open – the early-bird registration price is $195USD until September 17, then $250USD thereafter until October 21.

Event information is available at our conference page. You can review the agenda, nearby hotel details, maps and travel details at this page.

Stay tuned for details and location for our open-for-all dinner Wednesday, October 20, 6:00-8:00pm.

We hope you will join us later this year in Paris.

Registration is open for pii2010.   Taking place August 17-19 in Seattle during Seattle Geek Week, pii2010 will explore the future of digital privacy, identity and innovation, and how to strike a balance between protecting sensitive information and enabling new technologies and business models.

It’s an all-hands-on-deck conference where industry executives, technologists, consumer advocates, policy experts and other stakeholders will come together as a group to examine critical issues llike:

• How emerging technologies & business models are impacting the way data is created, shared and aggregated
• Effective approaches for building online trust with users
• Ways in which user preferences and social norms are shifting
• Changes in the regulatory landscape, in the U.S. and internationally
• The role of anonymity and the future of reputation management on the Web
• The latest developments in user-centric identity management

In addition, pii2010 will serve as the official launch pad for pii Labs, an open forum for brainstorming and collaborating where you will have an opportunity to share your ideas and projects with other participants.

Contact Dervla O’Reilly, dervla[at]kantarainitiative[dot]org for the discount code (for Kantara Initiative’s members) to save 20% off of pii2010 registration.

Review the 3-day schedule online.