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Internet Identity System Said Readied by Obama Administration

businessweek.com

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Re: Internet Identity System Said Readied by Obama Administration

#21

Post by T-R »

nickpinkston wrote: post #19
T-R wrote: post #16

Atwood and others have been praising the idea of a centralized identification system for a while, and tying it to a government identification system makes sense, but tying this to the Obama administration could be a marketing disaster. I can already hear Glenn Beck associating it with Nazi Germany and advocating against its use. Similarly, its association with Verizon, AT&T, Paypal, Symantec, and Google is likely to…

I don't think this is just for the Tin-Foil Hat crowd. Beck is on the extreme "gov't isn't natural, do away with it all!", but the other end of the spectrum is just as nutty in thinking that we can really control the US's corporatist system via the same gov't our big business use to gain their own influence. Am I crazy for not trusting the US to keep Corps. out of our internet?

It's not crazy at all, but it seems we've reached a point in the conversation where we can't produce anything meaningful without it getting drowned out by screams of "Fascism" and "Plutocracy".

I think that both Government and Business stand to benefit from it enough that it's possible that there weren't underhanded motivations involved, or at least that they won't come to fruition.

Re: Internet Identity System Said Readied by Obama Administration

#22

Post by thwarted »

trotsky wrote: post #10

This has been out there for a while. Here is a draft of the plans from June 2010: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/ns_tic.pdf Basically an ecosystem of privately run PKI systems, with an independent governance board and standards body.

From the first sentence in the Executive Summary:

Cyberspace – the interdependent network of information technology components that underpins many of our communications – is a crucial component of the Nation’s critical infrastructure. We use cyberspace to exchange information, buy and sell products and services, and enable many online transactions across a wide range of sectors, both nationally and internationally. As a result, a secure cyberspace is critical to the health of our economy and to the security of our Nation.

As I posted on twitter after seeing that: The use of the word "Cyberspace" to refer to the Internet helps us identify the idiots, old white guys and just generally clueless people.

Re: Internet Identity System Said Readied by Obama Administration

#23

Post by brown9-2 »

T-R wrote: post #16

Atwood and others have been praising the idea of a centralized identification system for a while, and tying it to a government identification system makes sense, but tying this to the Obama administration could be a marketing disaster. I can already hear Glenn Beck associating it with Nazi Germany and advocating against its use. Similarly, its association with Verizon, AT&T, Paypal, Symantec, and Google is likely to…

The reason why we can't have nice things is because some people are so willing to give up on certain ideas solely out of fear that people like Glenn Beck will criticize them.

You seem to think that this will be a disaster and fail because of some crackpot lunatic association Glenn Beck will make, not because of the actual merits or dis-merits of the actual system. Do we give up on ideas that easily now? If so, then that is the reason we can't have nice things.

Re: Internet Identity System Said Readied by Obama Administration

#24

Post by recampbell »

trotsky wrote: post #10

This has been out there for a while. Here is a draft of the plans from June 2010: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/ns_tic.pdf Basically an ecosystem of privately run PKI systems, with an independent governance board and standards body.

Why is the federal government's involvement necessary? We have a (mostly) workable PKI system for SSL certificates. Why does a consumer-focused PKI require government coordination?

I think the lack of a widely deployed PKI for authenticating consumer's identities is an indicator that a novel approach is required, but what can the federal government do that an independent (perhaps multi-national) organization could not?

Re: Internet Identity System Said Readied by Obama Administration

#25

Post by amh »

trotsky wrote: post #10

This has been out there for a while. Here is a draft of the plans from June 2010: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/ns_tic.pdf Basically an ecosystem of privately run PKI systems, with an independent governance board and standards body.

Bruce Schneier wrote an excellent article on PKI risks (http://www.schneier.com/paper-pki-ft.txt). Should be interesting to see how many of those are addressed as this scheme comes to fruition. It has the potential to become a highly useful backdoor intelligence gathering mechanism. This is a honeypot that the three letter agencies won't be able to resist.

Re: Internet Identity System Said Readied by Obama Administration

#26

Post by thwarted »

T-R wrote: post #21
nickpinkston wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is just for the Tin-Foil Hat crowd. Beck is on the extreme "gov't isn't natural, do away with it all!", but the other end of the spectrum is just as nutty in thinking that we can really control the US's corporatist system via the same gov't our big business use to gain their own influence. Am I crazy for not trusting the US to keep Corps. out of our internet?

It's not crazy at all, but it seems we've reached a point in the conversation where we can't produce anything meaningful without it getting drowned out by screams of "Fascism" and "Plutocracy". I think that both Government and Business stand to benefit from it enough that it's possible that there weren't underhanded motivations involved, or at least that they won't come to fruition.

Underhanded? I agree, most likely not. Created by busybodies though? Highly likely.

EDIT: And I say this because I was reading something about this (can't find the link now) where it said something like the rate of on-line retail is growing and is now a 30 billion dollar business (I might be misremembering the numbers). And we must do something about this to protect it, protect it from fraud and a bunch of other "problems" that were presented like . If things like fraud were real threats to the rate of growth and our dependence on on-line transactions, would we be seeing the rates of growth we're seeing? Wouldn't vendors be scaling back their sales (being more picky about who they sell to, or going out of business due to fraud) and consumers not choosing to buy online because things like identity theft were more prevalent.

From the OP:

Under the new program, consumers would sign in just once and be able to move among other websites, eliminating the inconvenience that causes consumers to drop many transactions.

Are the number of transactions being dropped really a threat, especially considering the growth?

I'm all for making things actually more secure, but doing so under the guise that the current status-quo, which is on a growth curve, is under attack is disingenuous.

These are contrived reasons. Contrived by someone who wants to push this because they perceive a problem (legitimately or just because they like their solution) that is actually smaller than they make it out to be. Busybodies.

Re: Internet Identity System Said Readied by Obama Administration

#27

Post by trotsky »

mindcrime wrote: post #2

Yeah, right. Let me know how that works out for ya. Like anybody is going to trust something like this, when the US Federal Government has it's fingers in the pie. This thing is dead in the water from day 0. This idea is about as dead as the Norwegian Blue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjOSLCR2hE

arpanet

Re: Internet Identity System Said Readied by Obama Administration

#28

Post by jf271 »

noelchurchill wrote: post #7
wmf wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans just don't trust the government; that's why so few people have driver's licenses. Oh wait.

I have a government drivers license so I can drive on government roads. I don't need a government license to get online and check my email, thank you.

If you live in the USA you drivers license is issued by the state you live in. There is no USA national drivers license.

Don't confuse state's rights with Federal Government rights.

Re: Internet Identity System Said Readied by Obama Administration

#29

Post by joe_the_user »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #13

Once this exists, it will just be a matter of time until it becomes mandatory. This is a guaranteed fact.

I wish I could give you more Karma for that.

As soon as "approved id" exist, the liability for allowing comments "without approved id" will skyrocket.

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