Acxiom has announced the introduction of a digital identity card as a beta offering for retail merchants, corporations, financial institutions and other organizations that wish to offer a privately branded identity card to their customers.

According to Acxiom, "a digital identity card allows consumers to establish new online accounts and log in to existing accounts with a unique, encrypted identity that is stored on the consumer’s personal computer. This is the digital equivalent of a privately branded identity card that is typically carried in a person’s wallet." READ MORE

Equifax has announced "a suite of products and industry initiatives to protect consumers' identity online and enhance security for personally identifiable information. Led by Ron Carpinella, vice president of identity management and identity marketing, Equifax's "Identity 2.0" program builds a pipeline of products that make online transactions easier and more secure for consumers and businesses. The Equifax I-Card(TM) and its enhanced authentication offering, eIDverifier(R), are two of the company's initiatives." READ MORE

ID Analytics has announced the availability of the ID Network Attributes, a family of products that provide organizations with greater insight into the array of consumer identity information within the company's ID Network. According to the company, "these attributes reveal new and powerful insights into identity information not available from other sources such as public records or credit bureaus, while protecting the sensitivity of the data." READ MORE

Equifax has announced the Equifax online identity card or I-Card, with a beta test of what it is calling "a first-of-its-kind digital identity management solution that is designed to make online transactions easier and more secure for both consumers and businesses." READ MORE

ID Analytics has announced an enhanced version of ID Score that "leverages critical online identity elements to further reduce identity fraud within the online environment, while also significantly improving the customer experience." READ MORE

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." READ MORE

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." READ MORE

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." READ MORE

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." READ MORE

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.

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."

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."

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."

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."

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.

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."

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."

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

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).

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."

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.

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."

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.

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.

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".

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.

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."