By Salvatore D'Agostino, IDESG President and Small Business & Entrepreneurs Stakeholder Delegate
In 2014, 17.6 million Americans age 16 or older experienced identity theft. That same year, 783 data breaches exposed more than 85 million records and 85% of people took steps to prevent identity theft. Moreover, from 2012-2014, the number of elderly persons who were victims of identity theft increased by nearly 25%. While data security innovation is constant, it is not always specifically focused on the rising trend of identity theft, presenting a significant challenge for conductors of global e-commerce. Clearly, we have a long way to go.
As we increasingly adopt, and to some extent become dependent on, social, cloud, mobile and a connected life, information technology, identity and their related services have become more outwardly focused. Important innovations spotlight the importance of embracing a wide-ranging, user-centric approach to developing privacy and related identity requirements for products, services and policies in an online world. The evolution of privacy and other guidelines presents an important opportunity to consider how the baseline requirements developed by IDESG confront head-on the demand for trusted and protected transactions online.
IDESG’s forthcoming Self-Assessment and Listing Service is a voluntary registry that empowers organizations to take a proactive approach to usability, privacy, security and interoperability. When an organization considers itself against the foundational privacy requirements previously outlined by IDESG, it gains a clearer path forward. It becomes better informed in developing its own well-balanced set of guidelines across technology, legal and business requirements. It can proceed with providing services capable of seamlessly addressing a wide selection of compliance regimes and control sets, and in a way that grows confidence through transparency and by informing users.
As IDESG encourages companies to independently compare their identity management methods against common practices, the SALS leaves them equipped with a self-directed privacy-improvement mechanism that can be leveraged across global governance and compliance regimes and certifications for trusted transactions in cyberspace. We are confident it will be good for business, as well as for the consumer. The connected world is ready for this pivot, and we are prepared to guide it.
Stay tuned for updates on the SALS and when it will be unveiled.