Novell-led Bandit Project Launches "Control Your Identity" Campaign

To drive better, more secure user management of Internet identities, the Novell-led open source Bandit™ Project today kicked off the "Control Your Identity" campaign to promote awareness and use of information card technology. Recognizing that millions of people who access Internet services each day are frustrated with entering identity data and managing passwords at multiple Web sites, the Bandit Project has launched an initiative to give users access to "Bandit Cards" – digital identity cards for use in Web transactions. To easily manage their Bandit Cards, visitors to the campaign Web site can obtain the Bandit Project's open source Linux* and Macintosh* cross-platform DigitalMe® information card selector and Microsoft Windows* CardSpace selector.

"Information card technology can no longer be considered vaporware—it's real and it's here," said Bob Blakley, principal analyst at Burton Group. "Information cards help to reduce the use of passwords and provide user experience advantages over today's environment. They may enable new applications and business models based on innovative uses of identity information."

As part of the "Control Your Identity" campaign launch, Novell will conduct a live demonstration of the Bandit Project's DigitalMe and Windows CardSpace information card selectors using Bandit Cards to perform identity transactions online at the Digital ID World Conference this week in San Francisco. Further promotion will take place at various IT industry events over the next six months, culminating at Novell's annual BrainShare® user conference in March 2008. The campaign Web site is built completely on an openSUSE® platform and uses open source identity components from the Eclipse Higgins Project and Pamela Project. Incentives on the Web site for users to obtain Bandit Cards, include prizes and contests. For more details, visit the "Control Your Identity" Web site: cards.bandit-project.org.

The campaign is being supported by Microsoft, helping to ensure that all users, regardless of operating system, have access to information card technology. Other identity community partners are expected to join in the near future.

"Microsoft believes information card technology, such as Windows CardSpace, is an integral part of a security-enhanced, interoperable identity metasystem," said Kim Cameron, chief identity architect in the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft Corp. "With this campaign, the Bandit Project is removing another barrier to the worldwide adoption of simple, trusted Internet identity management technology. It is not enough to create next-generation identity solutions, it’s also important that users are given the tools and incentives to utilize the technology."

In a consumer environment, information cards (digital identity cards) are either self-created or obtained from third-party companies and contain identity data, such as name, address, e-mail and credit card information. Information card selectors are used to manage, update and create information cards. This allows for a user-centric identity model, where users, not Web sites, control how sensitive identity information is presented, and it eliminates the need for users to manually create, provide and update identifying data at multiple Web sites. When the user visits an information card-compatible Web site and performs a transaction, such as purchasing an item, the information card selector enables a list of digital cards to be presented. The relevant digital card is selected and credentials are sent to an authorizing third-party site, for example, a credit card company, which verifies that the user has the necessary funds to perform the purchase. Authorization is securely sent back to the original site, and the transaction is completed.

Information cards are also useful in enterprise environments, where, for example, an employee can be provided with a company identity card that gives him or her access to outsourced payroll systems, benefits information or discounts at their employer's partner e-commerce Web sites. In the future, enterprises will be able to use solutions, such as Novell® Access Manager, to set up a simple interface that accepts information cards, allowing for better control of access to federated Web applications.

"The next generation of identity-management is ready for use and Bandit is at the forefront of driving its adoption," said Dale Olds, Novell distinguished engineer and Bandit Project leader. "A few months ago we made available a cross-platform information card selector that was functionally equivalent to Windows CardSpace. Now we are working on putting information card technology into the hands of everyone who can benefit from it."