Who Are You Anyway

I'm particularly interested in understanding how technology can help identify people. Identity Management is a "buzz-phrase" that has been on the go for a couple of years and lots of very talented people/organisations are trying to join up their thinking with regards to the problems posed by "identification".

Are the enterprises up to speed?

Yes and no. The techies often have an understanding of the problem and a view of how to solve the problem. The rest of the organisation still thinks IM means instant messaging!

How do you identify your customer - User ID and Password? That's one way - not very reliable though. Iris scanning? That's another way and the technology is improving all the time - bit expensive though.

My organisation is a financial institution and as such we can identify our customers by:

• User ID, Password and Shared Secret Q&A
• Credit/Debit Card and PIN
• User ID, Password and Location ID on a direct link ISDN line
• Signatures
• Photographic lookup (just like passport control)
• Smart Card

What's the best way to identify our customers? Dunno yet - what I do know is that our customers might appreciate a rationalisation of mechanisms.