Kantara to assess digital ID vendor conformance to OpenID specs as Authorized Auditor

The OpenID Foundation has signed an MoU with the Kantara Initiative for the latter to take the role as an Authorized Auditor for the former’s independent conformance testing program.

This means Kantara will assess applications from organizations seeking to become Approved Testing Services Providers for conformance evaluations to OIDF specifications.

The announcement follows just weeks after BixeLab, the FIDO Alliance, Fime, Raidam and TrustID Solutions signed on to support the conformance test program’s development and validation.

Members of Kantara represent organizations across a wide range of sectors and geographical regions, providing the breadth of experience and expertise in areas like trust frameworks, assurance programs and digital identity governance that it needs to play the role, according to the joint announcement.

“As the conformance testing program grows, independent oversight will play a vital role,” says OpenID Foundation ED Gail Hodges in the announcement. “The Kantara Initiative shares our commitment to trustworthy digital identity, and this collaboration strengthens the foundation on which the whole ecosystem depends.”

As Authorized Auditor, Kantara will conduct the due diligence to ensure applicants are legitimate, and apply structured assessments based on documented methods and checklists aligned with OIDF’s requirements and testing service assessment criteria.

“Kantara’s deep expertise in measuring assurance in identity and authentication complements the Foundation’s deep expertise in providing effective tools to implementers for self-assessing conformance,” comments Kantara Initiative Board Member Eve Maler. “I’m excited that these organizations will collaborate in scaling trustworthy identity systems.”

Kantara published its service assessment criteria for identity assurance aligned with NIST SP 800-63A Revision 4 just a week ago.

Article Topics

certification  |  digital ID infrastructure  |  Kantara  |  OpenID Foundation  |  standards