Dec. 5, 2011 Piscataway, NJ - Kantara Initiative announces the accreditation of two assessors, Deloitte & Touche LLP [1] and eValid8 [2], who are now qualified to perform assessments for the Kantara Identity Assurance Framework for both the Identity Credential and Access Management (ICAM) and non-ICAM Trust Frameworks. Additionally, Kantara Initiative announced the first high Level of Assurance (LoA) Kantara Service Approval (recognized as ICAM Certification) has been granted to Verizon’s Universal Identity Service at LoA 1-3 non-PKI for use to access U.S. Government online services. (See related press release [3].) “eValid8 welcomes the challenge of aligning industry providers with this unilateral approach to assuring that business, governments, and end users can conduct business with equivalent credentials” said Brian Dilley, President. eValid8® offers audited solutions such as TrustedCA®, TrustedRA®, and Kantara Initiative Accreditation for trusted identity assurance. “With this certification, Verizon is at the forefront of driving a new identity ecosystem that better protects users and organizations,” said Peter Tippett, vice president of Verizon. “Using our Kantara-approved credentials, we can offer businesses and government agencies more choices in securing their digital identities with our easy to deploy and use identity services that have now been certified to Level 3.” The ICAM program is seen by industry veterans as the first implementation of a model to build the Identity Ecosystem which is described in the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), which aim to create a trusted Identity Ecosystem that uses trusted-industry issued credentials to access U.S. Federal Government Services. Trust is measured via the certification programs of U.S. Government Trust Framework Providers (TFPs). Kantara Initiative is the only US Government TFP authorized to perform Service Approvals at Levels of Assurance (LoAs) 1, 2 and 3 (non-PKI) of services to connect industry-issued credentials with US Government Services. The market for high LoA credentials has since further developed by an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo [4] issued to U.S. Chief Information Officers (CIOs) that requires LoA 1 certified credentials be implemented for new government service web sites within 90 days of the first TFP final approval or when existing websites are enhanced or upgraded and LoA 2 and 3 non-crypto certified credentials be adopted for higher value U.S. Government agency services within the near term. The Kantara Identity Assurance Accreditation and Service Approval Program assesses applicants against its strict criteria ensuring, among other things, alignment with the OMB 04-04 and NIST 800-63 LoAs [5] and grants successful candidates of the program the right to use the Kantara Initiative Mark, a symbol of trustworthy identity and credential management services at specified Assurance Levels. Kantara Initiative is currently accepting appropriate applications to Accredit Assessors and Approve Credential Service Providers (CSPs) (a.k.a. Identity Providers – IdPs) to issue certified credentials for the ICAM Trust Framework. Additionally, the broad and unique cross section of industry and multi-jurisdictional stakeholders within the Kantara Membership, have the opportunity to create profiles that add additional criteria to the core Identity Assurance Framework for applicability to their specific communities of trust. For further information or to become Kantara Accredited or Approved (ICAM Certified), please visit our Kantara Accreditation and Approval Center [6] and contact support@kantarainitiative.org. About Kantara Initiative: Kantara Initiative is a global, open, public-private, technology-agnostic forum comprised of identity ecosystem stakeholders. Its inspired mission is to promote federation interoperability and harmonization; to develop policy frameworks for operational interoperability and to provide certification and assessment programs to grow trust in the standards, products, and service deployments. For more information about getting involved in Kantara Initiative, visit http://kantarainitiative.org. [1] http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Services/audit-enterprise-risk-service... [2] http://www.evalid8.com [3] http://www.verizonbusiness.com/about/news/displaynews.xml?newsid=25849&mode=vzlong [4] http://www.cio.gov/documents/OMBReqforAcceptingExternally_IssuedIdCred10-6-2... [5] http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-63/SP800-63V1_0_2.pdf [6] http://bit.ly/Kantara_Assurance_Accreditation_Approval ________________________ Dervla O’Reilly Program & Event Manager Kantara Initiative +1 415 731 4487 business +1 509 757 4487 fax dervla[at]kantarainitiative[dot]org http://www.kantarainitiative.org Join the conversation on the community@ list - http://kantarainitiative.org/mailman/listinfo/community