The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace has been released and there are some differing opinions on whether it's a good or a bad thing. In the first in a series of podcasts exploring the strategy, Jim Harper, director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, doesn't think it's a good idea. The author of "Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood" says that any online identity scheme needs to come from the private sector with no government involvement.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority still uses tokens and paper transfers. The transit system that serves 1 million commuters daily will be making the switch to contactless smart cards and even near field communication in the coming years, Richard Maloney, SEPTA's director of public affairs, told Regarding ID's Gina Jordan. "For the riders, they will be able to use either a SEPTA card, which they can purchase, they'll be able to use their cell phones or building ID cards or their drivers license in some cases--their government issued cards," Maloney said. "They can use almost any device that they can upload value to that can be read by a machine that can take their ticket."

Securing online identities is a hot topic. Gemalto and Microsoft Corp. have partnered to bring a product to market combing smart cards with cryptography to enhance privacy and trust. Gemalto's James McLaughlin discusses the partnership with Microsoft and how it may change the way people identify themselves online. "It allows a person a way to present the claims about themselves to someone else or something else, a service for instance, and do that in a way that's secure and allows them to control how much information is sent to that service or to that person," McLaughlin says.

In the latest edition of the Regarding ID podcast, Anna Fernezian, program manager for identity and assurance at CSC, fills listeners in on PIV-I, the smart card specification that can be used by non-federal issuers to create highly-secure credentials. Fernezian talks about the specification and why it's important as well as the role it may play with future credentialing projects.

Ely Kahn was a member of the White House National Security Staff when the idea of creating a a more secure identity management system for the Internet was formed. This eventually turned into the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, or NSTIC. Khan talks about where NSTIC came from and the process that went into creating the strategy.

Shared secrets, such as your first pet's name or a high school mascot, are a common way to retrieve passwords and reset accounts. With the explosion of social networking these secrets are easier for fraudster's to find. To combat these problems IDology has developed a knowledge-based authentication solution that uses a company's data on an individual to create questions. Regarding ID's Gina Jordan spoke with John Dancu, CEO at IDology, about his company's new product.

The first in a series of podcasts discussing the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, or NSTIC. Jim Dempsey, vice president for public policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, gives his take on the strategy along with what some possible obstacles may be for the government and private sector.

Standards for proofing and vetting an identity vary by different jurisdictions. With many different project underway designed to offer individuals a better way to assert an identity there are also efforts to standardize how it is proofed and vetted. Dan Combs, CEO at the eCitizen Foundation and Member of the Harvard Policy Group-Leadership for a Networked World, is leading the current drafting work that may lead to a U.S. standard for identity proofing and vetting. In this edition of the Regarding ID podcast Combs fills us in on the work the group is doing and how it relates to other projects underway.

The U.S. Department of Defense has one of the largest Public Key Infrastructures in the world. Getting to that point wasn’t necessarily easy, says Scott Jack, director of identity assurance for DOD PKI. Jack spoke about the role PKI plays with the Defense Department credential and how it may be used in the future, including form factors other than smart cards.

The U.S. Department of Defense Common Access Card celebrated 10 years in October. As the forerunner to U.S. government smart card programs, many would say it set the stage for HSPD-12 and what is now the PIV credential that many government employees are carrying. Mike Butler, deputy director of the Defense Manpower Data Center for identity and personal assurance at the Defense Department spoke with Regarding ID's Zack Martin and Gina Jordan about the program's history and future.