April 18, 2012, Piscataway, NJ – Kantara Initiative is proud to announce that Electrosoft is the latest Kantara-Accredited Assessor able to perform Kantara Service Assessments at Assurance Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4. The Identity Assurance Framework (IAF) provides a means to enable relying parties to understand the trustworthiness of electronic identity credentials issued at commonly agreed levels of assurance. The IAF specifies the verification and proofing checks that Credential Service Providers (CSPs) carry out on entities, the way that CSPs run their services, and how the CSPs, themselves, are assessed by accredited assessors to verify they are operating their services in conformance with their proclaimed level(s) of assurance and the stated terms of service.

Joni Brennan, Kantara Executive Director said, “Kantara Initiative is dedicated to enabling verified trust in identity services via our CSP Approval Program. We are pleased to welcome Electrosoft as the latest Kantara-Accredited Assessor.” View our Kantara-Accredited Assessors and Approved Services.

“Electrosoft is excited to be part of the Kantara Initiative and a Kantara-Accredited Assessor. We are already engaged in one of the first Kantara assessments and view this as a core business offering. We have established ourselves as thought leaders and subject matter experts in the Identity Management arena. Our employees were part of the core team that authored FIPS 201, Personal Identity Verification for Federal Employees and Contractors, in support of NIST and are named authors on related NIST guidelines” said Electrosoft President Sarbari Gupta. “By choosing Electrosoft, an organization can be assured that world-class subject matter experts in the identity management space are involved and can quickly understand and assess the target system against the appropriate requirements.”

To learn more about Electrosoft, please visit the company’s website.

Based on adoption of the IAF, Kantara Initiative has been approved by the US Federal Government Federal Identity Credential and Access Management team as a Trust Framework Provider qualified to operate at Assurance Levels 1, 2 and 3 non-crypto. Kantara-Approved Services are qualified to issue and manage credentials that can interoperate and access US Government on-line services such as National Institute of Health (NIH) research libraries or Veterans Association (VA) benefits. Kantara Initiative also actively works with international governments in regions including North America, Europe and Pan-Asia, to align this program for multi-jurisdictional adoption.

The Kantara Initiative Assurance Review Board (ARB) reviews applicant Assessors to ensure applicants have the skills, knowledge, experience and processes necessary to reliably perform assessments of CSPs on the behalf of Kantara Initiative.

Kantara-Accredited Assessors perform assessments of CSPs based on the IAF’s Service Assessment Criteria (SAC) and provide a Kantara Assessment Report (KAR) to the ARB. The ARB uses the KAR report as the basis for a recommendation to the Board of Trustees concerning the grant of Kantara-Approved Service status to a CSP, for its given Credential Service.

Kantara is accepting applications for Assessor Accreditation and Credential Service Approval. Visit our Accreditation and Approval Center for more information. Please address queries regarding your application to staff (at) kantarainitiative.org or via our Contact Us form.

Kantara Initiative is an industry and community organization which enables trust in identity services through our compliance programs, requirements development, and information sharing among communities including: industry, research & education, government agencies and international stakeholders.