Welcoming in Spring with the Kantara team

[Kantara Initiative]

Spring is in the air ....   Despite wintry conditions across large parts of N America and Europe, the team at Kantara are looking forward to Spring and the many events across our industry. We'll be out in person at EIC and Identiverse and supporting Identity Week in Amsterdam and Think Digital Identity for Government in the UK. I really enjoy meeting with members and clients at these events so please do let me know if you are intending to attend any of these. Let's grab a coffee - even if it is a virtual one! Our new Board of Directors has settled well into its role and has been focussed on developing our core strategies for growth. One of these is the development of a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility framework which will help define how our industry responds in this important area. Our DEIA [committee] is looking at what KPIs and metrics might be adopted across the industry. We'd love to get your thoughts too - why not consider joining the group? Email us and we'll share full details! I look forward to working with all of you through 2023.

Kay Chopard Executive Director, Kantara Initiative

Konfir's experience of becoming certified under the UK's DIATF We talked to Konfir, who were recently certified by Kantara in the UK for their employee verification technology. We wanted to know what was their primary driver for choosing to become certified under the DIATF. "We wanted to foster trust by providing evidence that we operate to the highest security standards. Certification serves as a springboard to open conversations about employment verification with public bodies and the market given it is already understood by many following the Digital ID rollout. The [certification] process emphasised the importance of digital trust and our commitment to protecting the privacy of individuals in the employment screening process." Read the full interview here This month our Board lead on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Jordan Burris of Socure was interviewed by FedScoop. He spoke about his views that the US government needs to identify a diverse set of modern approaches to digital identity, including public-private partnerships, new technologies, new acquisition approaches, and new processes. "To provide good service, any public-private partnership on digital identity needs to measure success, share information, and learn how to improve. Creating these foundations is vital for building trust and security for the nation’s digital identity ecosystem," says Jordan. Read the full article here

From our community

CARIN Alliance and HHS Release Digital Identity Federation Report  One of our most engaged partners is the CARIN Alliance. Together with a multi-sector collaborative of healthcare and other stakeholders, including ourselves, they have developed a healthcare digital identity federation Proof of Concept (PoC). Once in production, the PoC's work will eliminate the need to create separate "portal" accounts for individual data holders. The PoC has demonstrated PoC demonstrated it is possible for patients to be reliably identity proofed remotely and access their medical records from all of the places where they've received care, using a single query. Read the full report here Updated charter for Privacy Enhancing Mobile Credentials Work Group Kantara's Privacy-Enhancing Mobile Credentials Working Group (PEMC) is focused on developing the necessary privacy-related guidance for organizations that issue, verify and develop technologies to hold digital credentials such as mobile drivers’ licenses (mDL) when in person. This work has been underway since November 2021, and the lessons learned in that time have resulted in the revision of the PEMC WG charter. Read  the updated charter here

Heading to Las Vegas for Identiverse? KI member discount available  We are supporting Identiverse 2023 as an industry partner this year and will be presenting and chairing several of the sessions in Las Vegas. Kantara members are entitled to 25% discount. Simply use the code IDV23-KI25 when you register at https://identiverse.com. (Sorry but the discount code is not retroactive to any existing registrations, it’s only available for new registrations.)

Join us for our annual get-together at EIC in Berlin If you're going to EIC this year, we'd love to see you at our Members' Workshop. We will be discussing the strategic initiatives for 2023 as agreed with our new Board, giving an update on the Work Groups and their activities, and providing an overview of our certification work in the US and UK.  Exec Director, Kay Chopard, will also be speaking on a number of panels along with key members of the Kantara community. Register here but be quick as the early bird deadline expires imminently.

Identos nominates Kay Chopard as one of their top "Women in Identity"   On International Women's Day, we were all extremely proud to learn that Identos had nominated our own Kay Chopard as one of the top female leaders in the identity sector. "[She serves] as an inspiration for women who aspire to succeed and lead in the technology sector." Congratulations Kay!

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