PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ — (Marketwire) — 08/02/11 — After the Obama Administration-s (NSTIC), the Smart Card Alliance announced today that it has submitted comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regarding the establishment of NSTIC governance.
“As an industry group committed to security and trust of identities in cyberspace and the physical world, we endorse NSTIC and want to see it succeed,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “In our comments, we have outlined all of the factors that we view will be essential to its success, including: the overall governance structure of the steering group; managing quality participation by as many interested parties as possible; being accessible to all; being fair and democratic; and having adequate, sustainable funding.”
The entire comment to NIST on the Notice of Inquiry (NOI), “,” Docket No. 110524296-1289-02 can be read on the . The comments include discussion of general principles that the Alliance believes NIST should follow in establishing NSTIC governance, followed by specific answers to the questions in the NOI.
The comments to NIST were compiled by the Smart Card Alliance Identity Council, a cross-industry group of manufacturers, systems integrators and end users, focused on identity management and secure identity authentication. They outline these general principles as those that should guide the NSTIC governance model:
Governance should be driven by the private sector, not government. Government is a key stakeholder in the identity ecosystem and should participate as a stakeholder, rather than as the administrator.
Funding is needed both during organization formation and in steady state. The government should consider providing seed funding during the formation phase. The steering group will need to define the business and funding models for maintaining the organization in steady state as one of its initial tasks.
Organization members should work in peer relationships, with all members having an equal vote regardless of the size of the organization.
Steering group processes should be deliberate, transparent and open to all members and to the public.
Development of the organization should be in phases, with the Smart Grid initiative a useful model of how to accomplish the phased development.
All stakeholders must be able to have a voice in the steering group, and the organization must make a conscious effort to include smaller organizations, consumers, privacy groups and end users.
The steering group must be tasked to develop a sustainable funding model for the organization, with no special category of members or funding level required for representation on the steering group.
The organization must be sensitive to international requirements and implement a structure that engages with the international community.
Government involvement should be as a stakeholder and be structured to minimize the legal impact to the organization.
The organization focus should be to build on existing infrastructure and standards, developing action plans to address weaknesses.
For more information on NSTIC, the Smart Card Alliance, and smart cards, visit .
The Smart Card Alliance Identity Council is focused on promoting the need for technologies and usage solutions regarding human identity information to address the challenges of securing identity information and reducing identity fraud and to help organizations realize the benefits that secure identity information delivers. The Council engages a broad set of participants and takes an industry perspective, bringing careful thought, joint planning, and multiple organization resources to bear on addressing the challenges of securing identity information for proper use.
The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.
Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For more information please visit .
Deb Montner
203-226-9290
Montner & Associates Tech PR Agency
You must be logged in to post a comment Login