Let's Talk About Digital Identity

In episode 52, Elizabeth explores the recently announced Global Assured Identity Network (GAIN) initiative. She fills us in on what the GAIN project is, explaining how it's different from other trust networks and why GAIN is good for financial institutions. She also discusses the role of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) in the project, and what's next GAIN.

"This is really going to unleash creativity and expand access to individuals and communities and sellers all around the world."

Elizabeth Garber is a customer and product strategist who started her career in telecommunications and honed her craft in six different industries before joining one of the world’s largest retail banks. She is an expert in designing experiences and delivering transformational change based on a deep understanding of people. This interest has underpinned her graduate studies of the psychology of cross functional teams as well as how customers define value in relation to services they use.

In 2015, she was named one of the top 3 marketers under 30 by the UK Marketing Society and was recognised by Energy UK and EY for her work building Trust across the UK energy industry. In 2017 she won the Financial Times/30% club ‘Women in Leadership’ award.

Find Elizabeth on LinkedIn.

Elizabeth recently played a leading role editing the paper published by more than 150 Identity experts - GAIN: How Financial Institutions are taking a leadership role in the Digital Economy by establishing a Global Assured Identity Network. It was announced at the European Identity and Cloud Conference on 13 September by Nat Sakimura, chairman of the OpenID Foundation, and Gottfried Leibbrandt, former CEO of Swift, and then published by, among others, the Institute of International Finance.

To get involved, email [email protected] or join the LinkedIn group.

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In episode 51, Amit discusses how to address financial inclusion for individuals and organisations – and how identity can both prohibit and enable this. He explores the solutions that are available to facilitate secure Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) processes whilst enabling economic empowerment globally – such as the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI).

"Legal entity digital identities are equally as important as the individual identities because they form the gateway to be able to access essential and critical financial services."

Amit Sharma has engaged in a myriad of roles that intersect financial markets, risk management, regulatory compliance, and international development. He is the Founder and CEO of FinClusive, a hybrid FinTech and RegTech company dedicated to financial inclusion. FinClusive serves the growing fintech, virtual asset/crypto and other non-bank/alternative financial services sector by providing them the ability to establish insured accounts for themselves and their clients through its growing U.S. based bank partners and conduct cross border transactions over crypto/blockchain and traditional bank payment rails—with an embedded full-stack global-standard financial crimes compliance (FCC) platform. Prior to FinClusive, Amit worked in both the public and private sectors, including with Empowerment Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ, and at the US Treasury Department, first at the inception of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI), and later as COS to the Deputy Secretary and Advisor to Treasury’s senior team under Secretary Henry Paulson.

Connect with Amit on Twitter @ASharma_VT and on LinkedIn.

Find out more about FinClusive at finclusive.com.

FinClusive is a Ubisecure/RapidLEI partner. Read more about the partnership in our press release: www.ubisecure.com/news-events/finclusive-validation-agent-gleis/

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Let's talk about digital identity with Margus Pala, Founder and CEO at eID Easy, and Johan Nyman, Project Coordinator at Åbo Akademi University.

In our 50th episode, Margus and Johan discuss eSignatures. Coming from Estonia and Finland, they explore the use (and potential future use) of simple, advanced and qualified eSignatures in two of the world's most digitally advanced countries. They also delve into how we can standardise the use of eSignatures in Europe, and advice for business owners on what to ask from an eSignature provider.

Margus is from the world's most digitally advanced country, Estonia, and has seen the future many years ahead of most other countries. He started his professional career as a programming teacher before being part of multiple start-ups, including one unicorn - Playtech. He is also an officer in the Estonian army's National Guard Cyber Unit and has a master's degree in Cyber Security. For the last 5 years he has been running eID Easy, whose mission is to help everyone benefit from the future of digital identity and electronic signatures - not by breeding faster horses, but going to a whole new level.

Find Margus on Twitter @MargusPala @e_id_easy and on LinkedIn.

Johan's interest in digital identity, and specifically electronic signatures, is manifested in two areas: 1) the citizens’ perspective; how citizens can take advantage of national PKI (public key infrastructure) available on their ID cards to produce and use qualified electronic signatures, and 2) the public sector; how organisations working within the public realm, e.g. universities, can use national PKI for issuing e-signed documents, and also how they can raise their awareness and knowledge to handle qualified e-signatures in incoming correspondence from persons using e-signatures. He works as a project manager in university administration at Åbo Akademi, in Turku/Åbo, Finland.

Find Johan on Twitter @Johan_Nym and on LinkedIn..

Margus refers to the Finnish Trust Network. Find out more about the FTN here - https://www.ubisecure.com/authentication/finnish-trust-network-ftn/

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In this first episode of series 3, we put your burning questions to Kantara's newly appointed Executive Director, Kay Chopard. Kay explores why identity is so critical in so many applications; her hope for more promotion of Kantara's great work and to advance opportunities for collaboration; Kantara's new mobile drivers licenses (mDLs) work group; Women in Identity and the problem of lack of diversity in standards working groups; and why access and inclusion is one of the biggest challenges facing identity today.

"Digital identity is going to be one of the most critical issues going forward, for the world."

Kay Chopard is the newly appointed Executive Director of the Kantara Initiative, a non-profit corporation. She is the former President and CEO of Chopard Consulting based in the Washington, DC metro area and is the founder of the Women’s Leadership Institute. Kay has more than 30 years’ experience in executive leadership in government, non-profit, and business organisations, with leadership positions in several organisations including: Identity Ecosystem Steering Group (IDESG), National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). She is an attorney and has served as a prosecutor and maintained a private practice. Ms. Chopard also serves on the Board of Directors of Women in Identity US and volunteers in the leadership of the Women in Identity UK.

Find Kay on Twitter @KayChopardCohen and on LinkedIn.

The Kantara Initiative is a unique global ‘commons’ that operates conformity assessment, assurance and grant of Trust Marks against de-jure standards under its Trust Framework programme, while at the same time nurturing ‘beyond-the-state-of-the-art’ ideas and developing specifications to transform the state of digital identity and personal data agency domains.

Find out more about Kantara at kantarainitiative.org.

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Oscar introduces Let's Talk About Digital Identity - the podcast connecting identity and business.

Find out more at ubisecure.com/podcast

In the final episode of series 2, Oscar and Jim discuss the problem of "digital exhaust" – the data trail (including identity data) that consumers leave as they go about life online, which they often have little control over. Jim fills us in on why this data needs to be better managed – and how. He also explores the importance of interoperability, given his role as Chair of Kantara's Information Sharing Interoperability working group.

"If you give data, you'll get better data back."

Jim Pasquale is a veteran innovator with a passion for disruption. He has deployed large and complex software systems with the world’s largest telcos and communications companies to improve engagement, conversion and customer experience. Jim is currently EVP Interoperability at digi.me.

Find Jim on LinkedIn and Twitter @jpasquale.

Find out more about the organisations Jim's involved with: digi.me, kantarainitiative.org/groups/isi-work-group and me2ba.org.

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That's a wrap on series 2, but don't worry - we'll be back soon with series 3 of Let's Talk About Digital Identity, the podcast connecting identity and business. Subscribe to get new episodes in your feed, wherever you get your podcasts.

In episode 47, Oscar talks to Vinay about digital identity in India, and its key role in the country's digital transformation and privacy regulation evolution (with the upcoming Personal Data Protection Bill). They also discuss identity in a wider regulatory compliance, security and user experience context, noting Identity and Access Management (IAM) – and particularly Customer IAM (CIAM) – as a core component of success in all three areas.

"India is on a very exciting journey of digitalisation."

Vinay has over 35 years of varied experience. Over the years, he successfully held numerous roles with increasing responsibilities. He established and managed the global practices in e-Security and Service Management in partnership with global technology leaders. Vinay also led software development centre and corporate IT group earlier. The Oracle E-Business Suite R12 was deployed globally under him, as were set up various quality systems such as ISO 27001 (for IT security), ISO 20000 (for IT services), and CMMi Level 5 (for Software Maturity).

Vinay started his career with VLSI R&D and technology transfer of 68000 based workstations and servers in the initial days of his career. Vinay holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Jabalpur Engineering College and Master of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University. He is also a Senior Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Find Vinay on LinkedIn, and find out more about Claidroid at www.claidroid.com.

Claidroid is a Ubisecure partner. Read more about the partnership at www.ubisecure.com/news-events/claidroid-partnership-pr/.

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In episode 46, Oscar and Richard discuss how the Decentralized Identity Foundation is helping people gain control of their online identities and why an open-standards based approach to identity management is the key to better privacy, lower fraud, and a more ethical user experience.

"Decentralised identity will create an empowerment framework for people to have a part to play in their digital identity."

Richard Bird is the Chief Customer Information Officer for Ping Identity, a leading identity solution and access management platform. An internationally recognised data privacy and identity-centric security expert, Richard leverages his diverse experiences as a strategic advisor, solutions provider and former global head of identity for JP Morgan Chase’s consumer businesses to challenge current notions about cybersecurity. He is a Forbes Tech council member and has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, Business Insider, and the NYSE on topics ranging from data protection regulations to cybersecurity enabled consumer protection.

The Decentralized Identity Foundation aims to develop an open ecosystem for decentralised management of digital identities and ensure interoperability between all participants. Find out more at identity.foundation.

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In episode 45, Oscar talks to David Doret about Open-Measure – the comprehensive, open-source Identity and Access Management (IAM) resource that he created as a not-for-profit initiative. The conversation explores how and why Open Measure came to be – and how anyone working with IAM, in any capacity, can get involved.

"IAM is so transversal within the organisation – we need to work with HR, IT, security, the full workforce, top management, customers – with everyone, basically."

David Doret is a cybersecurity and IAM veteran. He worked in advisory services helping numerous organisations strengthen their security posture, held twice the position of CISO and specialised in IAM and risk management. He founded and runs the Open-Measure wiki for IAM professionals. He holds an MSc in Information Security, is certified GRCP, PMP, Lean 6 Sigma Green Belt, CISSP, ISO 27001 Lead Auditor and loves studying MOOCs as a hobby. He is currently Deputy CISO and IAM Manager at BNP Paribas.

Find David on LinkedIn and on Twitter @DavidDoret.

Contribute or provide feedback to Open-Measure at www.open-measure.org, or follow the LinkedIn feed at www.linkedin.com/company/open-measure/. The Open-Measure wiki can be found at open-measure.atlassian.net/wiki.

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In episode 44, we shake things up with a fireside chat format. Colin and Charlie begin by discussing: "Is digital identity for citizens a commodity?". From their different backgrounds in identity – Colin's tenure as Kantara's Executive Director, and Charlie's work as a political theorist – they explore multiple considerations, including user experience, the role of private organisations in shaping citizen (or resident) identity and how to ensure adoption. As both are currently UK-based, they use the UK government's historical and future plans around digital identity for context, as well as examples from other countries like New Zealand and the US.

"[Digital identity] can be delivered effectively, securely, and in a way that's lovely to look at as well. That's an exciting thing and it's an exciting time to be in this industry."

Colin Wallis is the Executive Director of the Kantara Initiative – the international industry association globally acknowledged for its ethos of no barriers to participation. Kantara is most recognised as a Trust Framework Operator of conformity assessment and Trust Marked schemes for digital Identity, Credential and Consent Management Service Providers.

Colin develops and executes the Kantara Initiative’s strategic plan in concert with the Board and Leadership Council, driving the organisation forward on a broad front with the financial support of private, public sector and individual members from every region of the world and the assistance of a dedicated band of expert volunteers. Colin’s work has been recognised by being named one of the Top 100 Influencers in Identity by independent research company One World Identity.

Find Colin on LinkedIn and on Twitter @KantaraColin. Find out more about Kantara at kantarainitiative.org and www.kantarainitiative.eu. This is Colin's second appearance on LTADI – find his first episode at www.ubisecure.com/podcast/kantara-colin-wallis/.

Charlie Harry Smith is a political theorist pursuing a doctoral degree at the Oxford Internet Institute, part of the University of Oxford. In particular, his research considers the normative and theoretical issues surrounding digital governments and the ongoing development of federated identity systems in the UK.

Alongside his research, Charlie regularly consults on digital identity projects. He handles social media monitoring for the Open Identity Exchange and, most recently, has worked with the Digital Equity Association to bring the SMART Africa Trust Alliance – an ambitious cross-continental federated identity scheme – to the pilot project stage.

Find Charlie on LinkedIn, Twitter @charliehrysmith, and on his website - www.chsmith.co.uk.

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