Faithful readers of this blog should note that cybersecurity and government legislation are always popular themes. And while previous entries often focused on the challenges or problems with government cybersecurity legislation, today's blog entry focuses on the positive work that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been doing with it National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) program.
For those who do not know, the Obama Administration introduced NSTIC in April 2011 as a mechanism to get public and private sector individuals to collaborate and discuss issues relating to digital identity privacy and security. From the start, NSTIC was designed to be more than just a working group. A national program office was established and most importantly, NSTIC was given money to solicit and fund interesting pilot projects relating to digital identity, security and privacy.
Following a formal request for proposals and review period, NSTIC has just awarded $9M+ to five different pilot projects. I am delighted that CA Technologies identity and access management solutions will be featured in two of the five pilot awards. You can read more about the five pilot awards here.
While I am happy to tout CA Technologies direct involvement with the The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) and Criterion Systems pilot awards, the diversity of participants from private and public sectors and different industries and vertical markets from all five pilots is a strong endorsement on the thriving identity ecosystem. It also reinforces the importance of the online security and privacy and indicates that collaboration and private/public partnership is essential if we are to address these issues successfully.
I will try to keep you posted on updates with these pilot projects through the blog, but I urge you to bookmark the NSTIC site and familiarize yourself with NSTIC and these pilots as they have great potential to expand and enhance the identity debate in the USA and beyond.