How much do you trust your digital life? Has the fear of identity theft or bank card fraud dampened your trust in digital services? You're not alone. As the digital world permeates more and more aspects of our lifestyle, protecting our digital lives is more important than ever.
Researchers at Microsoft, Nokia, Philips and digital security company Gemalto recently announced the launch of a new initiative that aims to set out how consumers and businesses can do just that. Called Trust in Digital Life Partnership, their vision is to address “the fundamental societal issue of trust in new and emerging digital services.”
One of the founding members of Trust in Digital Life is Kim Cameron , chief architect of identity with the Identity and Security division at Microsoft. Mr. Cameron is a firm believer that the need to animate interest in the area of digital trust is key. In a recent Q&A interview with the Globe and Mail, Mr. Cameron outlines what steps need to be taken to secure digital identity.
Why now for this type of partnership?
In a digital world you don't know who you are connecting with. The Internet itself was designed without any way for you to tell, and so we've retrofitted a bunch of [identity] mechanisms, but they aren't reliable and they aren't very easy to understand.
As more aspects of life enter the digital realm, this underlying fragility of not knowing who we are dealing with will become more and more problematic. The issue is a very interesting, hard and emotionally laden one – but right now, it's one of the most important for civilization in my opinion.
How did this Trust in Digital Life idea come about?
In Europe they plan things out and apply long term thinking about their infrastructures. They've done it in the past with their transportation systems for example. They want to do the same thing with electronic and digital systems and make Europe as competitive as possible through a great identity infrastructure. So they went to the research and planning people to identify pillars of digital initiatives for the future of Europe. Then they asked them to develop a vision and approach to identity and security and figure out which kind of research funding and joint industries, government and academic collaboration to promote.
What “systems” are you referring to in your vision statement?
When we talk about systems, we mean all the things that happen on your cellphone, your computer, and more and more on your TV, your gaming console and in your work environment where people are living inside the digital realm. The problem is, we're not aware if these “systems” are any good. Take the browser as an example. It's a system that is everywhere in space. Cloud computing pushes it even further. Information is flowing freely, but at what point does isolation between aspects of these systems become essential?
When will society reach a tipping point in all this?
We're already at a tipping point. A lot of systems have been built without any kind of “theory of trust” and information is conveyed that you're not even aware of. Most of the internet [and social networks] works that way. Everything that takes our lives into the digital world moves all things about privacy and security onto the front burner more and more. People need to be able to understand what is happening to them and respect privacy and security requirements.
Is this just a European issue?
