* EPOK allows owners of data to share in its use
Not everyone wanted to talk about Netegrity and Computer Associates last week. I did hold two conversations with identity management execs who not only had a fascinating business story to tell, but were interesting in their own right.
Not everyone wanted to talk about Netegrity and Computer Associates last week. I did hold two conversations with identity management execs who not only had a fascinating business story to tell, but were interesting in their own right.
Karen Wendel, CEO of Identrus, once fell into a piranha-infested river. Ayman Hariri, CEO of EPOK, isn’t even the best-known member of his family – his father is Prime Minister of Lebanon. As I said, fascinating personal stories. But today we’ll concentrate on the business message.
Hariri was actually raised mostly in France and came to the U.S. to study at Georgetown University. He stayed in the DC area after school and continued to be fascinated by the great strides technology, especially identity technology, was taking. So he along with partner Scott Birnbaum founded EPOK, which bills itself as the leading purveyor of Identity Rights Management (IRM) systems.
While that does seem like a marketing attempt to cash in on two “buzzwords” – identity management and Digital Rights Management (DRM) – EPOK was using the phrase before the recording industry began its crackdown on downloadable music. But there are similarities.
In a nutshell, EPOK’s products allow someone who “owns” data (typically identity or personalization data) to enable others to share in its use. A small, easily understood example is the Dynamic Address Book.
Say I have lots of information in my address book but I’m never sure how up-to-date it is. Services such as Plaxo are annoying, intrusive and spam-like (see Paul McNamara’s column at https://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2003/1208buzz.html if you aren’t familiar with Plaxo). EPOK’s method is non-intrusive and fine grained. Not only does the information update automatically, only that information intended for that user gets updated. If I’ve given you the right to know my cell phone number, then your record of it is automatically updated whenever the number changes. But if I haven’t granted you that right, then you’ll never know I even have a cell phone.
That’s a very simplified explanation of the simplest of EPOK’s technologies. Visit its Web site (http://www.epok.net) to learn more. See why the government of Dubai chose EPOK to implement its automated entry and exit system, paving the way for a visa-less travel experience. With the U.S. and EU (as well as some other countries) interested in both increased security for entry as well as a need to decrease the amount of time spent standing in line at airports, EPOK has some ideas and programs which should be of interest.
Identrus’ Wendel also had ideas about identity and security, but her focus is on safeguarding your money. We’ll look at that discussion in the next issue.
