More IdM highlights from RSA

The foundation for security and enterprise management

Let's take a look at what else was happening at the RSA Security conference last week in addition to the announcements we noted in the last two newsletters.

Top 10 RSA Conference security innovators

The "user-centric" identity space gained needed recognition from the Microsoft announcement that its U-Prove technology would be available to all, as I told you last issue. But there was even more news for this previously presumed "step child" of IdM when a major consortium of industry leaders, including Google, PayPal, Equifax, VeriSign, Verizon, CA and Booz Allen Hamilton, announced the formation of the Open Identity Exchange, a nonprofit organization intended to build trust in the exchange of online identity credentials across public and private sectors. The organization has been funded with initial grants from the OpenID Foundation and the Information Card Foundation, and has been approved as a trust framework provider by the U.S. government to certify online identity management providers to federal standards for identity assurance. Coupling U-Prove's limited disclosure technology with the government's imprimatur means that information cards (such as Microsoft's CardSpace) go to the front of the line as the preferred means of authenticating non-employee users of enterprises.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

Let's take a look at what else was happening at the RSA Security conference last week in addition to the announcements we noted in the last two newsletters.

Top 10 RSA Conference security innovators

The "user-centric" identity space gained needed recognition from the Microsoft announcement that its U-Prove technology would be available to all, as I told you last issue. But there was even more news for this previously presumed "step child" of IdM when a major consortium of industry leaders, including Google, PayPal, Equifax, VeriSign, Verizon, CA and Booz Allen Hamilton, announced the formation of the Open Identity Exchange, a nonprofit organization intended to build trust in the exchange of online identity credentials across public and private sectors. The organization has been funded with initial grants from the OpenID Foundation and the Information Card Foundation, and has been approved as a trust framework provider by the U.S. government to certify online identity management providers to federal standards for identity assurance. Coupling U-Prove's limited disclosure technology with the government's imprimatur means that information cards (such as Microsoft's CardSpace) go to the front of the line as the preferred means of authenticating non-employee users of enterprises.

There were, of course, many other announcements. I'll highlight a few here and give you pointers to get more information.

* SafeMashups announced its intention to market its first commercial product, the Cloud Trust Broker, intended to provide the level of visibility and control over inter- and intra-cloud communication needed to remove security and compliance obstacles that are hindering mass adoption of cloud computing models, according to the company.

* Avenda Systems introduced a new release of eTIPS, version 3.0. Included in the release are two new solutions -- eTIPS VM, a virtual appliance offering for the data center; and Edge, a remote access authentication gateway. With Edge, health policies -- such as antimalware, firewall, patches and corporate image checks configured for wired and wireless access -- can be used to authorize both corporate-owned and user-owned devices accessing corporate resources over a remote VPN connection.

* Radiant Logic announced the RadiantOne Identity and Context Virtualization Platform. This new release is intended for high-volume identity environments with distributed user populations, such as customers, partners, employees and disparate data sources, including directories, databases and Web services. The suite consists of Virtual Directory Server (VDS) Context Edition 5.2 and Identity and Correlation Server (ICS) 5.2.

* Agiliance announced the availability of RiskVision 5.0, a governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solution that will give organizations a continuous link between enterprise compliance and risk objectives and security threats in cloud, mobile and on-premise environments. RiskVision 5.0 also incldes enhancements in user interface, audit management, vendor risk management, policy import, data connectors and regulatory content.

Dave Kearns is a consultant and editor of IdM, the Journal of Identity Management.