Presented at the 6th Annual Privacy and Security Workshop, Privacy and Security: Disclosure, University of Toronto, November 3, 2005.

ABSTRACT:
Identity management is increasingly recognized as a cornerstone of electronic communication and transaction systems. Broad application areas such as enterprise access management, electronic health record management, e-government, e-commerce, and social networking all critically rely on the ability to manage, provision, and authenticate the "identities" of people,devices, processes, and other entities. Three basic approaches to identity management can be distinguished: silo identity management, federated identity management, and user-centric identity management. Each of these has unique characteristics with regards to security, privacy, scalability, and usability. As a result, each basic approach to identity management is suitable for certain types of applications but not for others. In this presentation I will discuss the pros and cons of each approach and discuss the implications for various types of applications. Interested listeners are encouraged to visit www.idcorner.org to learn more about the topic.