CybersecurityNIST awards $9 million to promote online security and privacy

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) last month announced more than $9 million in grant awards to support the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). Five U.S. organizations will pilot identity solutions which increase confidence in online transactions, prevent identity theft, and provide individuals with more control over how they share their personal information.

NSTIC is a White House initiative to work collaboratively with the private sector, advocacy groups, and public-sector agencies. NIST says that the selected pilot proposals advance the NSTIC vision that individuals and organizations adopt secure, efficient, easy-to-use, and interoperable identity credentials to access online services in a way that promotes confidence, privacy, choice and innovation.

“Increasing confidence in online transactions fosters innovation and economic growth,” said Patrick Gallagher, under secretary of commerce for standards and technology and NIST director. “These investments in the development of identity solutions will help protect our citizens from identity theft and other types of fraud, while helping our businesses, especially small businesses, reduce their costs.”

NSTIC envisions an “Identity Ecosystem” in which technologies, policies, and consensus-based standards support greater trust and security when individuals, businesses and other organizations conduct sensitive transactions online.

The pilots span multiple sectors, including health care, online media, retail, banking, higher education, and state and local government and will test and demonstrate new solutions, models, or frameworks that do not exist in the marketplace today.

“These five pilots take the vision and principles embodied in the NSTIC and translate them directly into solutions that will be deployed into the marketplace,” said Jeremy Grant, senior executive advisor for identity management and head of the NSTIC National Program Office, which is led by NIST. “By clearly aligning with core NSTIC guiding principles and directly addressing known barriers to the adoption of the Identity Ecosystem, the pilot projects will both promote innovation in online identity management and inform the important work of the Identity Ecosystem Steering Group.”

Launched in August 2012, the Identity Ecosystem Steering Group (IDESG) includes volunteer companies, organizations, and individuals dedicated to promoting the creation of standards and policies that will accelerate the development and adoption of the Identity Ecosystem. NSTIC’s National Program Office provided approximately $2.5 million in funding for a secretariat to support and facilitate the work of the IDESG. The group will hold its second plenary meeting 29-30 October 2012, in Dulles, Virginia.