Episode 74: U.S. isn't ready for NSTIC

04/22/11 • 10 min

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace has been released and there are some differing opinions on whether it's a good or a bad thing. In the first in a series of podcasts exploring the strategy, Jim Harper, director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, doesn't think it's a good idea. The author of "Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood" says that any online identity scheme needs to come from the private sector with no government involvement.

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Episode 73: Philly transit goes from token to smart cards

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority still uses tokens and paper transfers. The transit system that serves 1 million commuters daily will be making the switch to contactless smart cards and even near field communication in the coming years, Richard Maloney, SEPTA's director of public affairs, told Regarding ID's Gina Jordan. "For the riders, they will be able to use either a SEPTA card, which they can purchase, they'll be able to use their cell phones or building ID cards or their drivers license in some cases--their government issued cards," Maloney said. "They can use almost any device that they can upload value to that can be read by a machine that can take their ticket."

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Episode 75: NSTIC: It's all in the implementation

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace has lofty goals but as always the devil is in the details. If implemented correctly the strategy is a good thing, though this won't be easy. "It is a utopian document," says Aaron Titus, chief privacy officer and vice president of business development at Identity Finder. "Hating NSTIC, in it's current form, is like hating puppies and rainbows because it just about says anything that anyone would want. My concern is in the implementation, there's a lot that can go wrong." In our continuing series, Titus fills listeners in on some of the potential pitfalls and what officials need to watch out for when it comes to putting the strategy into practice.