Citi has announced the launch of a high-assurance digital identity solution — Citi Managed Identity Services - saying it "enables Citi clients to use digital identity and signature technologies to effectively and securely manage the exchange of electronic information in digital commerce and business critical transactions."   » Continue Reading

ID Analytics has announced the availability of ID Analytics for Authentication - calling it "a network based authentication solution that enables organizations to validate customer identities during online and call center interactions. ID Analytics for Authentication accurately separates legitimate and suspicious identities while reducing customer abandonment rates and lowering the cost of an authentication session by up to 50 percent."   » Continue Reading

The Information Card Foundation has officially launched its web site and posted its announcement press release. The founding companies say it's their goal "to advance a simpler, more secure and more open digital identity on the Internet, increasing user control over their personal information while enabling mutually beneficial digital relationships between people and businesses."   » Continue Reading

Robert Vamosi reports for Cnet News.com on the Information Card Foundation, a new group created by Equifax, Google, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, PayPal, and others to "increase awareness of the use of electronic ID cards on the Internet, and encouraging interoperability in business around new standards." The Information Card Foundation website should be updated with more information on Tuesday. See also Dark Reading's article today. Laurie Flynn covers the story in Tuesday's New York Times.

Chris Skinner blogs about the results of a discussion earlier this week at the Financial Services Club in London on the question of whether current authentication and identification methods are good enough.

Acxiom has announced FactCheck-X Authenticate - calling it "a more secure means of online account authentication. Based on unique, biographically based question-and-answer sessions for account holders, businesses are more secure and customers can experience a better online authentication experience."   » Continue Reading

Stefan Brands has announced that his company's (Credentica) U-Prove technology has been acquired by Microsoft and that he and a couple of his colleagues have joined Microsoft's Identity and Access Group. More about the acquisition at Kim Cameron's IdentityBlog and Microsoft's Data Privacy Imperative blog.   » Continue Reading

Yahoo! has announced "its support for the OpenID 2.0 digital identity framework for all 248 million active registered Yahoo! users worldwide. OpenID, an open framework based on proven Internet technologies, enables users to consolidate their Internet identity, eliminating the need to create separate IDs and logins at all of the various websites, blogs, and profile pages they may visit in the course of their online session. In addition to the many leading Yahoo! services users already enjoy, anyone with a Yahoo! ID will be able to use the same ID for easy access to any sites that support OpenID 2.0."   » Continue Reading

Experian has announced that Experian and Microsoft have developed a proof of concept identity management service using Microsoft Windows CardSpace. The company said that "as ID fraud activity intensifies, this service streamlines identity authentication and provides a safer and simpler way to pay online."   » Continue Reading

Javelin Strategy & Research has announced its 2007 Banking Identity Safety Scorecard, "an annual ranking and study of the top 25 U.S. banks in areas of identity fraud prevention, detection and resolution. This year, financial institutions showed strength in resolution practices, but vulnerability in prevention and detection."   » Continue Reading

ID Analytics has announced ID Score-Revenue, calling it "a new solution to help companies expand their customer base by more accurately evaluating the risk of individuals that lack substantial credit histories."   » Continue Reading

TransUnion has announced that effective October 15, 2007, it will offer what it its calling "the credit reporting industry's first complete file freeze solution" - providing U.S. consumers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia with the ability to freeze their credit files, should they feel that step is warranted.   » Continue Reading

Bank of America has announced a new security feature for its online banking service called SafePass™ that the bank says "provides customers with an extra layer of protection against unauthorized transactions." According to the bank, "SafePass delivers a one-time-use six digit code as a text message to consumers' mobile devices that they can use to authorize their most sensitive online transactions. As an additional security measure, the code expires as soon as it is used or within 10 minutes after it is issued."   » Continue Reading

In a commentary titled "Identity: Innovation or Infrastructure", Glenbrook's Linda Elliott shares some of her thoughts going into this year's Digital Identity World conference.

Consumer Reports National Research Center has announced results of a national poll finding that "an overwhelming majority of Americans want lawmakers to restrict the use and availability of Social Security numbers by businesses and government agencies. According to the poll, 89 percent of Americans agree that state and federal lawmakers should pass laws restricting the use of Social Security numbers."   » Continue Reading

Actimize has announced that it has expanded its cross channel Remote Banking fraud prevention solution with new Mobile Banking capabilities.   » Continue Reading

Late last month, the US Government Accountability Office issued a study report titled "SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS - Use is Widespread and Protection Could Be Improved" (PDF).   » Continue Reading

Experian has announced a new fraud detection solution that the company says "integrates data authentication with consumer challenge questions to create the most comprehensive approach for detecting fraud and managing the associated risk. The new product, Knowledge IQSM, is the first system to merge two essential elements in the fight against fraud."   » Continue Reading

ID Analytics has announced that Fidelity National Financial will be using ID Analytics ID Network - what the company calls "the nation's first and only real-time fraud prevention network" - to manage identity risk.   » Continue Reading

EMC Corporation has announced that the acquisition of Verid, Inc., an information security firm that "delivers knowledge-based authentication solutions to millions of users worldwide, through some of the largest consumer-facing financial institutions, telecom providers and retailers."   » Continue Reading

ID Analytics has announced it has closed $20 million in a Series C financing that was led by Investor Growth Capital and included existing investors Canaan Partners, Trinity Ventures and Mission Ventures.   » Continue Reading

On April 23 and 24, 2007, the Federal Trade Commission will host a public workshop, “Proof Positive: New Directions in ID Authentication,” to explore methods to reduce identity theft through enhanced authentication. The workshop will facilitate a discussion among public- sector, private-sector, and consumer representatives, and will focus on technological and policy requirements for developing better authentication processes, including the incorporation of privacy standards and consideration of consumer usability issues.   » Continue Reading

Entrust has announced that it is collaborating with VeriSign in proposing a new fraud intelligence network. The two companies have prepared an IETF Internet Draft document titled "How to Share Transaction Fraud (Thraud) Report Data".   » Continue Reading

TransUnion has announced that it has joined Utica College’s Center for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP), a research collaborative composed of elite public and private sector organizations, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Secret Service, LexisNexis, IBM and three prominent universities. The organization is dedicated to using applied research to further a national research agenda on identity management, information sharing and data protection.   » Continue Reading

Tom Zeller Jr. reports for the New York Times on a statistic developed by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse - roughly 93,754,333 private consumer records have been compromised in some fashion. What do consumers get if their data has been compromised? Typically, one year of free credit monitoring paid for by the company responsible for the compromise. Zeller goes on to report "in the battle to stop the great hemorrhaging of personal data, the enemy is us."

Julie Forster writes for the Twin Cities Pioneer Press that locally based companies Ingenix and Fair Isaac are each working on technology to help identify false claims that contribute to skyrocketing health-insurance costs. She reports that "at Ingenix headquarters in Eden Prairie, 220 doctors, nurses, mathematicians, lawyers, former law-enforcement officers and others work to detect scams and abuse. The company is working with ID Analytics, an identify-fraud company based in San Diego, to develop the technology."

Verid recently announced a deal with RSA Security to incorporate Verid's KBA (Knowledge Based Authentication) solution into RSA's "adaptive authentication" product suite. Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson spoke yesterday with Kevin Watson, Chairman & CEO of Verid, to learn more about KBA and the company.   » Continue Reading

RSA Security has announced that it is teaming with Verid in order to further expand the range of strong authentication technologies included in its comprehensive RSA Adaptive Authentication solution. RSA Security will integrate Verid's knowledge-based authentication (KBA) technology into the RSA Adaptive Authentication platform.   » Continue Reading

Javelin Strategy & Research has published a new report, "Data Breaches and Identity Fraud: Misunderstanding Could Fail Consumers and Burden Businesses", concluding that incorrect beliefs about the way consumer data breaches have an impact on identity fraud may lead to ineffective actions taken by consumers. Javelin says the misunderstandings may also lead to flawed protective measures taken by corporations as well as state and local governments.   » Continue Reading

Matt Richtel and Miguel Helft of the New York Times report on the "pretexting" indusry - made sudden much more famous as a result of the recent Hewlett-Packard board investigation. They say that "retexters often use techniques similar to those employed by identity thieves to obtain not only telephone records but also other private data." They cite industry experts who say all you need to get access to a wireless subscribers bill is the last four digits of a person's Social Security number and their zip code. While using pretexting to gain access to financial records was made illegal at the federal level in 1999, using it to access telephone records isn't clearly illegal.

The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) has announced that the General Services Administration (GSA) is requesting information on the capability of commercial and other entities to provide identity credential services to support public access to Internet-based online government services. A copy of the RFI is available for download.   » Continue Reading

Griff Witte writes for the Washington Post about the upcoming issuance of new federal employee ID cards and how the use of biometric and other technologies in those cards could spur usage in other applications - potentially including banking and payments.

RSA Security has announced that its technology currently protects more than 20 million registered users with its live online banking authentication technology and that it has signed agreements with -- and begun implementations at -- major financial institutions representing approximately an additional 40 million online bankers. RSA also announced the launch of the RSA Adaptive Authentication 5.8 solution integrating RSA Security and legacy Cyota and PassMark technologies. According to RSA, "the new version also comprises a wide range of deployment plans, including a rapid deployment option that is designed to enable the implementation of a fully-operational account protection system in less than 30 days -- with no integration work or code changes required."   » Continue Reading

Jessica E. Vascellaro writes for the Wall St. Journal about online identity verification - and how it's becoming increasingly important. According to Vascellaro, "companies are developing a slew of new tools to help people confirm their identities. The new services allow consumers to create and share verified personal profiles with people they meet or do business with online."

TransUnion has announced it is acquiring Qsent, a Beaverton, Ore.-based provider of contact and identity management services that support customer acquisition and retention, collections and recovery and identity resolution applications.   » Continue Reading

Tom Young reports for Computing from the UK that Barclays plans to issue new hand-held card readers to all of its online banking customers for use in authenticating their logon access to Barclays' online banking sites. According to the article, the readers will read the chips on Barclays debit cards and generate a unique one-time password that must then be used to successfully complete the logon. The devices are based upon standards developed by APACS.

Riva Richmond writes for the Wall St. Journal about several startups offering new services to help prevent identity theft. Included are TrustedID, which focuses on freezing credit information at credit bureaus, and LifeLock, which manages placing fraud alerts on consumer credit files. Others mentioned include CardCops, Cyveillence, and ID Analytics.

Today is the last day for discounted early bird registration for ID Analytics' Identity 2006 Identity Risk Management Conference being held September 18-21 at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa in Dana Point, California.

Richard Craver reports for the Winston-Salem Journal on identity theft services and questions the relatively high costs that banks are attempting to get for these services.

Fortent, a company created specifically to deliver a comprehensive suite of risk and compliance solutions to financial institutions worldwide, was launched today. Fortent combines Searchspace, a leading anti-money laundering solution, and Semagix, a pioneering Know Your Customer and Enhanced Due Diligence product, into a single brand.   » Continue Reading

Esther Schindler writes about Microsoft's CardSpace (formerly InfoCard) - that will provide what Microsoft calls an identity layer for the Internet that's an inclusive, standards-based model built on the "laws of identity." According to Schindler, "for CardSafe to succeed, it will need buy-in from more than site developers. The company is exhorting financial firms and other such organizations — pleading might be a better word — to participate in the managed card program as Identity Providers."

Our friends at Consult Hyperion have just launched a new Digital Identity Forum blog to complement their great Digital Money Forum blog.

Microsoft has announced that its InfoCard identity metasystem will now be called CardSpace - "a Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.0 component that provides the consistent user experience required by the identity metasystem. It is specifically hardened against tampering and spoofing to protect the end user's digital identities and maintain end-user control."

Bank of America has announced it has completed the rollout of its free SiteKey security service for Online Banking with its launch this month in Washington and Idaho.   » Continue Reading

Nick Miller reports for the Sydney Morning Herald on the Australian government's Federal Human Services Minister Joe Hockey and his plans 17 old government identity cards into one computer chip-based smartcard in a A$1.1 billion project over the next four years.   » Continue Reading

Ingenix, a UnitedHealth Group company, and ID Analytics have announced a strategic alliance to offer new solutions for health care fraud and abuse detection. The companies will develop advanced technologies to detect fraudulent and erroneous health care claims.   » Continue Reading

ID Analytics has announced that Identity 2006 will be held September 18-21, 2006 in Dana Point, California at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa. The fifth annual event, which brings together experts at the forefront of identity fraud detection and prevention to focus on the next level of Identity Risk Management: Bridging Networks of Trust.   » Continue Reading

Gartner in a press release this morning says that "recent thefts of personal data from companies and government agencies make it clear that Social Security numbers can no longer be relied on as proof of identity."   » Continue Reading

Yodlee has announced a relationship with the UK subsidiary of Equifax to deliver Account Watch, a product that help consumers proactively manage their financial accounts and protect themselves from fraud and identity theft by leveraging Yodlee's OnCenter Alerts Service to monitor (with a user's permission) real-time online account activity, such as bank accounts, savings accounts and credit card transactions.   » Continue Reading

VeriSign held its annual analyst day yesterday and the presentation slides (PDF) and webcast are available online. [Editor's note: VeriSign's analyst day presentation slides are in an "HD" wide screen format - first time I've seen that format used in this kind of setting!]

At the meeting, VeriSign announced that Charles Schwab has selected VeriSign to deploy both its Identity Protection (VIP) Fraud Detection and Authentication Services to secure client login and transaction information. Additionally, Charles Schwab plans to become an anchor tenant of the VIP Fraud Intelligence and Shared Authentication Network. The VIP Shared Authentication Network is already supported by PayPal, eBay and Yahoo!   » Continue Reading

VeriSign has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Needham, MA-based GeoTrust, Inc., a leading supplier of SSL and other solutions to secure e-business transactions, for approximately $125 million in cash.   » Continue Reading

Experian has announced the next generation of its Knowledge-Based Authentication services platform that offers a broader array of authentication questions than had previously been available. The new questions are not related to credit topics and are not under the auspices of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.   » Continue Reading

SunTrust Bank has announced a free identity theft protection and credit-monitoring program from Equifax, "becoming the first major bank in the nation to provide Equifax Credit Watch Silver protection for free to select personal checking clients."   » Continue Reading

Equifax and PayPal have announced a new credit alert program that provides PayPal account holders in the United States with free monitoring of their credit records. Through this relationship, PayPal users receive free early warnings alerting them to activity on their Equifax credit report.   » Continue Reading

The 41st Parameter has announced that it has secured $11.2 million in Series B funding led by investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with additional capital from Series A lead investor Norwest Venture Partners.   » Continue Reading

Forrester's Jonathan Penn comments on "The State Of FFIEC Compliance: Indecision And Worry" saying that "at the half-way point toward the deadline for FFIEC compliance, most banks have not yet acted on selecting, much less implementing, solutions to strengthen online authentication." Given the recent acquisitions of Cyota and PassMark Security by RSA Security, he's now predicting "a flurry of acquisitions" with bankers moving "toward solutions that coordinate risk monitoring with strong authentication."

Javelin Strategy & Research has announced its 2006 Card Issuers' Identity Safety Scorecard saying it reveals a significant difference when comparing the performance of the top-rated and the bottom-rated credit card issuers in partnering with customers to protect against identity fraud.   » Continue Reading

RSA Security has announced that it has acquired PassMark Security, a privately held company based in Menlo Park, that "delivers robust software-based authentication to millions of users worldwide, through some of the largest consumer-facing financial institutions."   » Continue Reading

Larry Ponemon reports for CSO Magazine on the results of a survey of password usage that confirms user frustrations with being required to remember multiple passwords for multiple systems.   » Continue Reading

TransUnion has announced it will be integrating the ID Analytics ID Score into its Fraud and Identity Management Services.   » Continue Reading

Mario Toneguzzi of the CanWest News Service writes about mortgage fraud becoming over a billion dollar a year industry in Canada.   » Continue Reading

The Federation for Identity and Cross-Credentialing Systems, a coalition of government contractors, companies and not-for- profit organizations supporting development and implementation of an interoperable identity cross-credentialing network, has announced an agreement with the Department of Defense to create an interoperable identity network and an expanded membership base now including two of the nation's largest financial institutions: Citigroup and Wells Fargo.   » Continue Reading

Australia-based Fraud Management Technologies has announced FraudAlert, a new software or hosted solution designed to reduce the rate of increasingly sophisticated online fraud while protecting the convenience and ease of use of online banking and retailing.   » Continue Reading

Brian Robinson writes for FCW.com about how the US government's push to define the standards for the common access control cards’ functions, interface technologies and biometric identification data addresses only part of the problem faced by federal agencies - as the requirements and standards for the other aspects of identity management systems are not well defined.   » Continue Reading

Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig writes in Wired about Microsoft's InfoCard, the company's new identity management system scheduled to debut later this year with the release of Windows Vista. Lessig says InfoCard "could be the most important contribution to Internet security since cryptography."

PaymentOne has announced a new Identity Verification Service (IVS) designed to reduce "unauthorized and fraudulent online transactions by confirming the identity of a consumer in real-time to assure merchants that an online purchase transaction is authorized and valid."   » Continue Reading

Kenneth Harney reports for the Washington Post about how mortgage lenders are sharing loan application information with the credit bureaus - who then make it available to other third parties.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new research report titled "Total Transaction Security: Best Practices in Limiting Fraud Exposure Online and Offline" that traces the lifecycle of fraud from theft to detection to identify strategies for protecting payment transactions.   » Continue Reading

The NACHA Internet Council's next meeting is being held next week, February 28 - March 1, 2006, at Dana Point, California and will focus on multifactor authentication requirements and solutions as its theme. In preparation, it's prepared a "5-Stage Authentication Road Map" (PPT). See the General Internet Council Meeting Agenda (DOC) for a complete list of topics and speakers.

Gregg Keizer reports for Information Week on Charles Schwab's announcement yesterday that the online broker will provide a guarantee against any and all losses from unauthorized account access. Called the Schwab Security Guarantee, it is an effort intended to help calm customer concerns about phishing and identity theft.   » Continue Reading

Hitesh Patel of KPMG Forensic takes a look at the benefits of the recent Chip and PIN implementation in the UK and predicts how fraudsters might evolve to alternative strategies.

ID Analytics and PassMark Security have announced a partnership to bring the power of authentication and identity risk scoring to online banking and e-commerce. The combined offering will help more companies determine the risk associated with each log-in and safeguard legitimate customers from identity fraud while transacting online.   » Continue Reading

Microsoft's Bill Gates keynoted today's RSA Conference by focusing on Microsoft's vision for a more secure online future. Included in that future is a "trust ecosystem" that engenders trust and accountability between people and businesses online.   » Continue Reading

Todd Bishop reports for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Microsoft's InfoCard identity management initiative. Microsoft's Bill Gates is expected to talk more about InfoCard during a keynote speech he's giving today at the RSA Conference in San Jose, CA.   » Continue Reading

Peter Pollack writes for Ars Technica on his views of the newly announced VeriSign VIP service - both pro and con.   » Continue Reading

VeriSign has announced the launch of VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP), a program designed to "help provide identity protection for consumers who conduct business online." VeriSign said that VIP is supported by several online companies including PayPal, eBay and Yahoo!. In addition, SanDisk has announced plans to support VIP by manufacturing and distributing OATH compliant USB mass-storage and trusted flash devices and Motorola plans to enable this technology on consumer mobile devices.   » Continue Reading

Bill Husted writes from tomorrow's Atlanta Journal-Constitution about what a difference a year has made to suburban Atlanta-based ChoicePoint.   » Continue Reading

Javelin Strategy & Research and the Council of Better Business Bureaus have released some of the results from their 2006 Identity Fraud Survey reporting that "that despite growing fears the growth of identity fraud is contained and that data compromise through the Internet is actually less severe, less costly and not as widespread as previously thought."   » Continue Reading

Christopher Conkey reports for the Wall St. Journal on new research by Javelin Strategy & Research and the Better Business Bureau to be released tomorrow that concludes that about 8.9 million people in the US had their personal data stolen last year as compared to 9.3 million people in 2004.   » Continue Reading

RSA Security has announced that Japan Net Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation have selected RSA SecurID strong authentication tokens to better protect online banking customers in Japan. Japan Net Bank will be the first to deliver two-factor authentication tokens to over one million online banking customers.   » Continue Reading

Melissa Campbell writes for the Alaska Journal of Commerce about online banking, phishing and the protection of personal information.   » Continue Reading