Big Brother and The Mark Of The Beast
White House Preparing National Big Brother Online ID Plan
The proposed Big Brother Mark Of The Beast system for authenticating
people, organizations and infrastructure on the web at the
transactional level will require an identity ecosystem.
By Mathew J. Schwartz
InformationWeek
June 25, 2010 08:00 AM
The Obama administration is set to propose a new Big Brother Mark Of
The Beast system for authenticating people, organizations and
infrastructure on the Web. The online authentication and identity
management system would be targeted at the transactional level -- for
example, when someone logs into their banking website or completes an
online e-commerce purchase.
Making such a system effective, however, will require creating an
"identity ecosystem," backed by extensive public/private cooperation,
said White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt, delivering
the opening keynote speech at the Symantec Government Symposium 2010 in
Washington on Tuesday.
"This strategy cannot exist in isolation," he said. "It's going to take
all of us working together." Furthermore, "we should not have to
dramatically change the way we do business -- this should be a natural
path forward," he said.
That path forward will hinge on a new draft of the National Strategy
for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, due to be released Friday for the
first time to the public, for a three-week comment period. Formerly
known as the National Strategy for Secure Online Transactions, the
report offers specific strategy and implementation recommendations, and
may also recommend more sweeping policy and privacy changes.
The report builds on the Obama-commissioned Cyberspace Policy Review,
which analyzed the government's information and communications
infrastructure defensive capabilities. One of the report's
recommendations was to "build a cybersecurity-based identity management
vision and strategy that addresses privacy and civil liberties
interests, leveraging privacy-enhancing technologies for the nation."
Simply issuing a Web-friendly biometric identification card to everyone
in the country, of course, wouldn't necessarily make anyone or anything
more secure, including online transactions. As the report also notes,
to be effective, security tools and technology must be complemented by
education. "There is always a necessity to do awareness and education
of the end user," said Schmidt. "But you're not trying to teach the end
user how to be a security expert."