Do I Know You?
30 Jan 2007
EDS Government Journal Explores Future of Identity and Access Management
The EDS Government Journal is a compilation of thought leadership papers designed to communicate EDS' point of view on a variety of issues governments face today, while creating a point of departure for dialogue with our clients.
EDS Government Journal
Do I know you? Industry experts explore how integrated identity and access management can help governments deliver even greater public value. The forward-looking papers in the Journal articulate clear points of view, and are designed to inspire dialogue, shape discourse and inform the development of value-added solutions for governments worldwide.
This second issue focuses on the topic of identity management, representing a range of potential applications that are pertinent to any government in the world. Within that context, authors Steve Hutchens, Paul Mrochinski, Richard Varn, David Troy, Jim Pauli, John Petraborg and Diane Scott discuss how identity management is essential to U.S. federal identity credentials, state driver's licenses, health and human services eligibility and justice administration. The selected topics in the Journal can be applied to benefit other EDS client governments around the world.
“The exact business and social context may vary, but the challenges, technical frameworks, functions and, most importantly, benefits are directly applicable to any government,” said EDS Global Government Industry Vice President and Leader Suparno Banerjee. “We hope that governments worldwide may benefit from the ideas and suggestions contained in these articles.”
High-Value Solutions For Identity Management
Proper identification of individuals and beneficiaries of services is essential to effective service delivery and operations. EDS offers low-risk, high-value solutions to help both government and commercial enterprises meet their business challenges.
Since proper identification of individuals and beneficiaries of services is essential to effective service delivery and operations, the topic of identity management is at the top of mind of many organizations. It has wide-ranging applications across both government and commercial enterprises.
“The most compelling point about identity management is that it is a technology that represents versatility,” said Hutchens, who leads EDS' Homeland Security Affinity Group. “People think identity management, smart cards and biometrics are still based upon science fiction with no real applications, but that has changed dramatically in the past four years. The information security field has seen a huge increase in attentiveness to the potential for identity management. Identity management is a key component of a strong security program. It is essential to support strong authentication of both physical and logical access control systems.”
EDS narrowed the Journal's scope to the five topics because all areas are actively implementing identity management solutions or in the throes of investigating them, Hutchens said. “We could have picked 50 topics because there are so many relevant stories out there.”
Hutchens noted that the timing of the Government Journal is important because as governments struggle to implement identity management solutions, the publication can help shed light on things they should consider and bring new insights.
“It shows that EDS has a point of view on identity management and how we can offer low-risk, high-value solutions to help our clients meet their business challenges,” he said.
The Journal also includes a primer for EDS clients and employees on the basic concepts, terminology and applications of identity and access management. It helps them consider how identity management fits into existing business processes to enhance security. Hutchens said the Journal includes an acknowledgement of risk management as part of the valuation of identity management toward addressing an organizations' security program. It also illustrates how identity management will have a positive impact on reducing fraud, improving efficiency with digital credential management, and contributing to the prevention of identity theft.