NSTIC begins latest round of pilot project funding for identity solutions

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) National Program Office announced it has initiated its fourth round of pilot program funding in 2015 for innovative identity solutions.

The NSTIC pilot program provides funding to private companies that develop identity solutions in replacement of individuals entering passwords for online authorization.

These pilots will ultimately address the identity ecosystem’s challenges and seed the marketplace with “NSTIC-aligned” solutions to improve overall privacy, security, and convenience in online transactions.

The agency is inviting all companies to apply for funding in order to address the key challenges in identity management.

Pilots must develop and demonstrate solutions that will eventually lead to the adoption of “NSTIC-aligned” authentication technologies in lieu of passwords.

NSTIC is seeking to fund pilots that address a range of important issues, including the impact on privacy and civil liberties and the capacity for more tracking and profiling inherent in federated identity solutions; the usability of strong authentication technologies, balancing transparency to individual users and ease-of-use; and building security, privacy and usability into commonly used architectures to manage access to personal data.

Other key challenges that pilots will address include the limited deployment of successful trust frameworks, the lack of commonly accepted technical standards for interoperability among solutions, the lack of strong authentication solutions that can be used across multiple sectors and relying parties, and the lack of clarity on liability and other complex economic issues.

First launched in 2012, the NSTIC pilot program has provided about $30 million for innovative identity projects to date.

Previously reported, another NSTIC pilot program operated by the AARP recently began testing biometric identification technology that helps the organization more effectively and securely manage their digital identities.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  funding  |  NIST  |  NSTIC  |  online authentication  |  pilot project  |  privacy  |  U.S. Government