Creditnet News Story
White House drafting national identity theft protection strategy
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
By Danielle Robson
Identity theft is becoming such a widespread problem in America that the federal government is quickly taking big steps to help curb it.
According to a blog post on the White House website, which was written by Obama administration cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt, the government wants the help of the American public in finalizing its plan.
The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace aims to create a single online identity to help authenticate users, the post said. The first draft of the plan was developed in collaboration with government agencies, business leaders and privacy advocates.
The new online ID will be used by consumers in a variety of ways, for everything from sending emails to making banking transactions and even accessing medical records, the post said. The Department of Homeland Security has posted a draft of the plan and is accepting suggestions and comments from the American public through July 19.
A report from Information Week said that the strategy is currently "broad and vague" by design, as the White House believes the acceptance of the plan on a broad scale will take the cooperation of both the public and private sectors.
| 
Subscribe | |
