ICF and OIDF Launch Open Identity Exchange

San Francisco, CA -- After a year-long collaboration, the Information Card Foundation (ICF) was pleased to join the OpenID Foundation (OIDF) in announcing the launch of the Open Identity Exchange (OIX) at the RSA 2010 Conference.

OIX is the first open identity trust framework provider—a provider of certification frameworks for the providers and consumers of open identity credentials such as Information Cards and OpenID. OIX is based on a new approach to creating wide-area trust networks on the Internet called the Open Identity Trust Framework (OITF) Model. ICF, OIDF, and OIX have jointly published a white paper describing this model, including 12 "Principles of Openness" followed by OITF providers.

"This is a major step forward for the open identity industry," said ICF Executive Director Drummond Reed, who will also serve as the initial Executive Director of OIX. "To serve governments and other online communities that have requirements for specific levels of identity assurance, the industry needed to create a certification program for OpenID and Information Card providers. Now we have done that, and we have done it in a manner consistent with the open standards and open market approach upon which our technologies are based."

OIX also announced that it has been approved by the US General Services Administration (GSA) on behalf of the Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM) subcommittee of the U.S. CIO Council to serve as a trust framework provider for the US ICAM trust framework at level of assurance (LOA) 1. OIX has already certified the first three identity providers for this trust framework— Equifax, Google, and PayPal—and certification of Verisign and Verizon is underway. Besides these five companies, Booz Allen Hamilton and CA are also founding Executive Members of OIX.

"Certification was the next major issue in the wide-scale adoption of open identity technologies," said Don Thibeau, Executive Director of the OIDF, who is serving as the initial President and Chairman of OIX. "I was very pleased with the collaboration between the OpenID Foundation and the ICF, as well as with the public/private partnership we formed with the GSA and ICAM. I believe OIX can be a key new contributor to both Internet and telco trust infrastructure.”

A second white paper describing the background, structure, and function of OIX, as well as several other trust frameworks currently in development, is available on the OIX website.