Understanding Global Smart ID

Nov. 8, 2013

By Julie Beal for Activist Post

What is Global Smart ID?
It’s a way to prove who you are, online. It is sometimes called remote authentication.
The security industry tends to call it ‘federated ID’, or ‘single sign on’.
It’s already being used by the military, and large corporations.
It starts by signing up with an Identity Provider (IdP), who will then act as a go-between when you want to access services online, and are asked to prove your ID. From proof of age, to driving entitlements, to ‘trustworthiness’, all of it can be confirmed by your IdP.
It can be used for a number of applications with a number of form factors – more industry speak for: you can use it for all sorts of things, e.g. payments, tickets, opening doors (ie keys), accessing company records, clocking into work, logging into the smart grid, etc, with a number of gadgets and technologies (such as NFC, and biometric scanners) – there has to be a chip involved, because this contains your encrypted ID including biometrics. It’s likely this will be in a smartphone or smart card at first (though the NSTIC is currently piloting use of rings or bracelets), but eventually it would have to be sub-dermal, to avoid loss or theft.

Why don’t we hear about it in the news?