New approach to identity security management

User-centric identity management is the focus of a recently launched initiative which may well revolutionize online security. Old-style security tools are based on the same premise as physical security: The more walls you have around something valuable, the safer it will be. There is an increasing realization, however, that in the virtual world a different approach is needed. A new open source initiative was launched last month by Eclipse, and it may point the way.

Project Higgins aims to give control over personal information and its security back to the person that matters: The owner of the information. The concept is to develop tools that allow individuals to share their details selectively with web sites on a permission basis. Instead of entering one’s private data into every site one interacts with, the user maintains a secure master version, and grants trusted organizations the right to access the elements they need to authorize the user.

Ottawa, Canada-based Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on providing a vendor-neutral open development platform and application frameworks for building software. The Eclipse Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation formed to advance the creation, evolution, promotion, and support of the Eclipse Platform and to cultivate both an open source community and an ecosystem of complementary products, capabilities, and services.

-read more about Project Higgins at Eclipse Web site