By John Kincaide, Security and Privacy Policy Strategist for Intel Many people have discovered the numerous benefits of managing important aspects of their lives online. From the ease of shopping from home and having what you want show up at your door to filing income taxes, online sites are a great way to efficiently manage important life transactions.
There are many best known methods recommended to protect your online identity. Most of the recommendations related to online passwords boil down to 1) use strong passwords and 2) don’t use the same password on different online sites. Unfortunately, following these recommendations can create a new set of problems. Most strong passwords are purposely nonsensical. Even if you find a clever system to create a strong password that is meaningful to you it’s recommended that you only use that password on a single online site.
Password “overload” appears to be a common problem. A seasoned internet user will likely be registered on too many online sites to easily count. The online services can range from buying groceries to managing personal finances, each with different levels of risk related to the personal information collected, stored and used on the online site. As the number of online sites a person uses increases it’s very difficult to efficiently manage all the required passwords. And even if you follow all the password recommendations there’s no guarantee identity theft or credit card fraud won’t occur. Identity Theft remains a growing problem despite people’s best efforts to use existing technology to protect themselves.
Fortunately the
National Strategy for Trusted Identity in Cyberspace (NSTIC) is promoting the development of a robust identity ecosystem that should help remedy many of the problems in the current online password system while also focusing on providing optimal online identity protection and security. If you’re not familiar with NSTIC. The
Identity Ecosystem Steering Group (IDESG) is a public-private-partnership currently working to ensure the vision of a new identity ecosystem becomes a reality. Intel is a participating member of the NSTIC IDESG and agrees with its vision and direction.
Global Government and Manufacturing Communications for Intel