In October 2011, federal CIO
Steven VanRoekel gave federal agencies three years to allow third-party credentials to validate identities for citizens wanting to do business with them online. As a part of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), the Federal Cloud Credential Exchange encourages secure citizen-to-government interactions by removing the requirement that people set up separate usernames and passwords with individual agencies.
Acknowledging growing citizen expectations for online services,
procurement documents describe the challenges faced by users drowning in dozens of online accounts and agencies struggling to cost-effectively provide online services.
According to
Information Week, a new pilot program at the U.S. Postal Service will test acceptance of third party identity verification services like PayPal and Google for use in government transactions. The large scale test needs to support approximately 135 million U.S. Postal Service customers and up to 1 million transactions per hour. Several vendors, including Symantec, Xceedium and Amazon Web Services, have indicated interest in participating in the pilot program.
Several other pilot programs, including some in cryptography and online privacy, are also being conducted in conjunction with NSTIC, according to
Information Week.
Image: Steven Good / Shutterstock.com
Noelle Knell is the executive editor for e.Republic, responsible for setting the overall direction for e.Republic’s editorial platforms, including Government Technology, Governing, Industry Insider, Emergency Management and the Center for Digital Education. She has been with e.Republic since 2011, and has decades of writing, editing and leadership experience. A California native, Noelle has worked in both state and local government, and is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, with majors in political science and American history.
