According to a poll of 7,500 senior IT executives compliance with regulations is a major driver of IT spending. Identity is a major factor here for reasons that are detailed in an article in the first Digital ID World print magazine (Subscribe here.) According to over 65% of respondents, it is regulation that is forcing them to take these measures at this time.

Don't be fooled by the "security" words here, it means identity management. Organizing computing around identity is the only way to ultimately meet the increasing compliance requirements that are being generated by legislation and regulation.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has asked Verisign Inc. to suspend its new Site Finder service while it conducts an investigation into the system.

SiteFinder uses the wild card capability of DNS to redirect any nonexistent DNS addresses to a Verisign web site. It has caused technical controversy, as makes some anti-spam capabilities non-functional, but the biggest reaction seems to be about whether it is "right" for Verisign to do this. ICANN said, in a statement issued on Friday, that it has been "monitoring community reaction" to the service and is also "carefully reviewing the terms of the .com and .net Registry Agreements."

This reminds us that in the realm of digital identity many problems are not technology based. What is possible to do technologically is only the start - what *should* be done is often the larger set of issues. Policy is an unavoidable part of identity technology.

You can tell that an industry is beginning to mature when the "anti" sites begin to show up...

This article gives a good background on the reality of Wal-Mart and RFID. Key points:

Wal-Mart's wll require its top 100 suppliers to use RFID tags on cases and pallettes of consumer goods shipped to its distribution centers and stores by January 2005. "By 2006, we will roll it out with all suppliers."

Wal-Mart is unlikely to back off its requirement, because the retailer is convinced the benefits are huge. Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. estimates that Wal-Mart could save nearly $8.4 billion per year when RFID is fully deployed throughout its supply chain and in stores.

Wal-Mart has been studying the potential of RFID for more than 12 years. It has a facility in Rogers, Ark., in which it tests tags and readers from various vendors and studies how the performance of these products is affected by the environments in its distribution centers and storerooms.

RFID is not a simple plug-and-play technology. Wal-Mart will explain to its suppliers what they need to do to fulfill the retailer's requirements, but after that, they're on their own. Competitors and suppliers who are just beginning to look at this technology have a huge task in front of them.

Despite various "reasons" given why Wal-Mart cancelled its smart shelf project, they indicate they remain committed to something like it in the long term.

This article details IBM's full force launch into the RFID business (services and consulting). Quoting from the article:

"IBM believes RFID's time has come," Faye Holland, worldwide RFID leader at IBM Global Services, said in a statement. "As our retail and (consumer-goods) customers see the dramatic benefits this technology brings in cost reduction, improved customer service and streamlined operations, the demand is escalating."

The Defense Information Systems Agency will begin deploying a commercial application on its Global Combat Support System that provides identity and account management, and enhanced security with a single sign-on.

The key comment is: "As we were developing our Web app, a requirement to manage this became a difficult thing to solve. There were differences between different types of administrators, different types of users." Expect to see a lot more of this "Whoops! We just ran into the identity thing!" type response, because Identity is Center.

In this case, their integrator Northrop Grumman turned to Waveset's Lighthouse commercial product as a platform to build a custom solution with. Many commercial vendors have been working to solve these problems for some time now, and have a variety of innovative solutions. But they have struggled to tell the story of why they are needed.

Don't be one of those caught by surprise - attend the Digital ID World Conference 2003 October 15-17 and you will leave with a full picture and many ways to solve identity problems - even those you didn't see coming.

Retail takes stock of radio tags | CNET News.com

What makes industry veterans optimistic, however, is that companies are developing the technology in response to business needs instead of inventing products based on speculation, as so many did in inflating the dot-com bubble. Some industry leaders are so bullish that they say RFID may become a factor in lifting the technology sector from its three-year decline.

A file swapper's attorney filed a motion to retain her anonymity in a "Jane Doe" hearing yesterday. The motion - the first of its kind - was filed in federal court in Washingto D.C. on behalf of a Verizon Communications customer accused of offering songs for free downloading, who is asserting her privacy and other constitutional rights.

The Lawyer said, "If someone is issued a subpoena requesting identity, you as a citizen or consumer, have the right to hire an attorney and try to prevent your identity from being turned over. We think this is yet another indication of why this law needs to be fixed."

This case continues the "scorched earth" battle in court by the RIAA over music piracy, a battle that seems likely to both clarify and muddy many of the fuzzy areas of privacy and copyright along the way.

Microsoft now has its Rights Management Client available for download. This is the first part of their Rights Management system, that will ultimately be integrated into Office 2003 to allow useage rules to be applied to Office documents.

Use requires the Rights Management Services be installed on a Windows Server 2003 on the network. More details are available in this article and this article gives insight into Microsoft's Rights Management strategy.

An FTC Survey reports that 27 million U.S. Residents (approximately 10% of the total population) has been a victim of identity theft in the past 5 years.

A key finding here is that most victims have no idea how the thief obtained their identity. The FTC is willing to say "We don't know of any problems that have resulted from consumers who shared information with a secure Web site that uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption to transmit information." But at the same time it softens that claim with "There clearly are hazards on the Internet, because consumers can end up at a site that is not what they think it is."

In short, identity theft is now being shown to be a much larger problem than previously thought. It is as safe a crime (for the criminal) as any out there, and has a huge payoff. Business will not be able to continue just considering it a "cost of doing business" a lot longer, as the growth rate is explosive and still rising.

This week, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) launched the Coalition on Online Identity Fraud to combat identity theft online. We can hope this effort will prove to be more than "window dressing" and will mark the beginnings of real efforts to address the problem head on.

This article outlines some of Microsoft's strategy surrounding Digital Rights Management:

Office 2003, the upcoming update of the company's market-dominating productivity package, for the first time will include tools for restricting access to documents created with the software. Office workers can specify who can read or alter a spreadsheet, block it from copying or printing, and set an expiration date.

The technology is one of the first major steps in Microsoft's plan to popularize Windows Rights Management Services, a wide-ranging plan to make restricted access to information a standard part of business processes.

InfoWorld: Hitachi develops RFID chip for bank notes, documents: September 02, 2003: By : Wireless

Hitachi Ltd. has developed an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip that requires no external antenna and makes possible the embedding of tracking and identification chips in bank notes, tickets and other paper products.

So much for the anonymity of cash...