Liberty Alliance
Encyclopedia
The Liberty Alliance was formed in September 2001 by approximately 30 organizations to establish open standards, guidelines and best practices for identity management. Today it has a global membership of more than 150 organizations, including technology vendors, consumer-facing companies, educational organizations and governments from around the world, as well as hundreds of additional organizations that participate in Liberty's various open community Special Interest Groups (SIGs). It has released Frameworks that address Federation (since contributed to OASIS for the SAML standard), Identity Assurance, Identity Governance
, and Identity Web Services, as various services applications. It has also been active in privacy and policy issues relative to identity.
As of 2006, the Liberty Alliance has tracked well over one billion Liberty-enabled identities and devices in fields as diverse as defense & law enforcement to telecommunications to egovernment. Management Board members include AOL
, British Telecom, Computer Associates (CA), Fidelity Investments
, Intel, Internet Society
(ISOC), Novell
, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
(NTT), Oracle Corporation
and Sun Microsystems
.
As of June 2009, the work of the Liberty Alliance is transitioning to the Kantara Initiative.
, forming the foundation for SAML 2.0
. Today, many organizations have deployed interoperable solutions that support SAML 2.0. In 2007, Gartner, an industry analyst firm, declared SAML 2.0 "the de facto federation standard across industries."
, releasing the first version publicly in July 2007. The Identity Governance Framework defines a set of standards to help enterprises easily determine and control how identity related information is used, stored, and propagated in appropriate and secure ways using protocols such as LDAP, SAML
, and WS-Trust
and ID-WSF.
Full Current membership
is a successor to Liberty Alliance, Concordia and others and has been formed by leaders of many foundations and associations working on various aspects of Digital identity
to be a robust and well-funded focal point for collaboration to address the issues we each share: Interoperability and Compliance Testing, Identity Assurance, Policy and Legal Issues: Privacy, Ownership and Liability, UX and Usability, Cross-Community Coordination and Collaboration, Education and Outreach, Market Research, Use Cases and Requirements, Harmonization, Tool Development.
The Kantara Initiative is working to bridge the enterprise, mobile, government and Web communities to provide the industry with a clear path for moving interoperable identity systems forward, advancing adoption and meeting marketplace and user needs.
Identity Governance Framework
The Identity Governance Framework is a strategic initiative of the Liberty Alliance that will define a set of standards to help enterprises easily determine and control how identity information is used, stored, and propagated in appropriate and secure ways using protocols such as LDAP, SAML, and...
, and Identity Web Services, as various services applications. It has also been active in privacy and policy issues relative to identity.
As of 2006, the Liberty Alliance has tracked well over one billion Liberty-enabled identities and devices in fields as diverse as defense & law enforcement to telecommunications to egovernment. Management Board members include AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, British Telecom, Computer Associates (CA), Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments
FMR LLC or Fidelity Investments is an American multinational financial services corporation one of the largest mutual fund and financial services groups in the world. It was founded in 1946 and serves North American investors. Fidelity Ventures is its venture capital arm...
, Intel, Internet Society
Internet Society
The Internet Society or ISOC is an international, nonprofit organization founded during 1992 to provide direction in Internet related standards, education, and policy...
(ISOC), Novell
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
, commonly known as NTT, is a Japanese telecommunications company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Ranked the 31st in Fortune Global 500, NTT is the largest telecommunications company in Asia, and the second-largest in the world in terms of revenue....
(NTT), Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
and Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
.
As of June 2009, the work of the Liberty Alliance is transitioning to the Kantara Initiative.
Identity federation
In July 2002, the Liberty Alliance released its first public specifications, Liberty Identity Federation (ID-FF) 1.0. At this time, several member companies also announced upcoming availability of Liberty-enabled products, marking very rapid release and deployment of open specifications developed by a consortium like the Liberty Alliance. Liberty Federation allows consumers and users of Internet-based services and e-commerce applications to authenticate and sign-on to a network or domain once from any device and then visit or take part in services from multiple Web sites. This federated approach does not require the user to re-authenticate and can support privacy controls established by the user. The Liberty Alliance released two more versions of the Identity Federation specification, and then in June 2003 contributed its federation specification, to OASISOASIS (organization)
The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards is a global consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of e-business and web service standards...
, forming the foundation for SAML 2.0
SAML
Security Assertion Markup Language is an XML-based open standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between security domains, that is, between an identity provider and a service provider...
. Today, many organizations have deployed interoperable solutions that support SAML 2.0. In 2007, Gartner, an industry analyst firm, declared SAML 2.0 "the de facto federation standard across industries."
Identity Web services
Liberty Alliance also focused on identity web services standards, publicly releasing the Liberty Identity Web Services Framework in April 2004. Liberty Identity Web Services is an open framework for deploying and managing a variety of identity-based Web services. Liberty Web Services applications include Geo-location, Contact Book, Calendar, Mobile Messaging and Liberty People Service, a Web services framework for managing social applications such as bookmarks, blogs, calendars, photo sharing and instant messaging in a secure and privacy-respecting federated social network. In the October 2008 report "Federated Identity," Burton Group recommends organizations consider Liberty Alliance ID-WSF 2.0 specifications when implementing federation.Liberty interoperable certification program
In an effort to grow the identity marketplace, the Liberty Alliance introduced the Liberty Interoperable (TM) certification program in 2003, designed to test commercial and open source products against published standards to assure base levels of interoperability between products. Currently, more than 80 products have passed testing. In 2007, the US GSA began requiring successful completion of this certification test as a prerequisite for participating in the US E-Authentication Identity Federation.openliberty.org
In January 2007, the Liberty Alliance announced the OpenLiberty Project, a global initiative formed to provide resources and support to open source developers building identity-based applications. OpenLiberty.org is a portal where developers can collaborate in the OpenLiberty Project and access tools and information for "jump starting" the development of more secure and privacy-respecting applications based on the widely deployed Liberty Federation and Liberty Web Services standards. In November 2008, OpenLiberty released the open source ArisID API, providing enterprise developers and system architects with a library for building enterprise-grade identity-enabled applications using multiple identity protocols.Identity governance framework
In February 2007, the Liberty Alliance began working on the Identity Governance FrameworkIdentity Governance Framework
The Identity Governance Framework is a strategic initiative of the Liberty Alliance that will define a set of standards to help enterprises easily determine and control how identity information is used, stored, and propagated in appropriate and secure ways using protocols such as LDAP, SAML, and...
, releasing the first version publicly in July 2007. The Identity Governance Framework defines a set of standards to help enterprises easily determine and control how identity related information is used, stored, and propagated in appropriate and secure ways using protocols such as LDAP, SAML
SAML
Security Assertion Markup Language is an XML-based open standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between security domains, that is, between an identity provider and a service provider...
, and WS-Trust
WS-Trust
WS-Trust is a WS-* specification and OASIS standard that provides extensions to WS-Security, specifically dealing with the issuing, renewing, and validating of security tokens, as well as with ways to establish, assess the presence of, and broker trust relationships between participants in a secure...
and ID-WSF.
Identity assurance framework
The Liberty Alliance began work on the Identity Assurance Framework in 2008. The Liberty Identity Assurance Framework (IAF) details four identity assurance levels designed to ease and speed the process of linking trusted identity-enabled enterprise, social networking and Web 2.0 applications together based on standardized business rules and security risks associated with each level of identity assurance. The Assurance Levels are based on four levels of assurance outlined by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-63 version 1.0.1 {NIST800-63}, and range in confidence level from low to very high. The level of assurance provided is measured by the strength and rigor of the identity proofing process, the credential's strength, and the management processes the service provider applies to it. These four Assurance Levels have been adopted by the U.K. government, the Government of Canada and the U.S. Federal Government for categorizing electronic identity trust levels for providing electronic government services. These Assurance Levels are also recognized and referenced in the Liberty Alliance Identity Assurance Framework.Concordia project
In 2007 the Liberty Alliance helped to found the Concordia Project, an independent initiative focused on driving harmonization of specifications in the identity space. It does this by soliciting and defining real-world use cases and requirements for the usage of multiple identity protocols together in various deployment scenarios, and encouraging and facilitating the creation of protocol solutions in the appropriate homes for those technologies.Privacy & policy
Since inception, the Liberty Alliance has also focused on the business and policy aspects of identity management, publishing business and policy guidelines in a variety of forms for different business and legal audiences in a variety of vertical sectors. The Liberty Alliance hosted Privacy Summits across the globe in 2007 and 2008 to foster dialogue about and understanding of privacy issues in the identity space.Adoption
More than one billion Liberty-enabled identities and devices have been tracked globally as reported by different organizations and news outlets, across a variety of categories, including biometrics, commercial IT, defense & law enforcement, education, egovernment, escience, financial services, healthcare, HR, oil & gas, online service providers, outsourcers & service providers, real estate, standards organizations, technology, telecommunications, and travel & transportation.Management board members
|
Internet Society The Internet Society or ISOC is an international, nonprofit organization founded during 1992 to provide direction in Internet related standards, education, and policy... (ISOC) Novell Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise... |
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone , commonly known as NTT, is a Japanese telecommunications company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Ranked the 31st in Fortune Global 500, NTT is the largest telecommunications company in Asia, and the second-largest in the world in terms of revenue.... Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems... Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982... |
Full Current membership
Kantara initiative
The Kantara InitiativeKantara Initiative
Kantara is a non-profit professional association dedicated to advancing technical and legal innovation related to digital identity management. It has members and participants in 11 countries...
is a successor to Liberty Alliance, Concordia and others and has been formed by leaders of many foundations and associations working on various aspects of Digital identity
Digital identity
Digital identity is the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people's experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things...
to be a robust and well-funded focal point for collaboration to address the issues we each share: Interoperability and Compliance Testing, Identity Assurance, Policy and Legal Issues: Privacy, Ownership and Liability, UX and Usability, Cross-Community Coordination and Collaboration, Education and Outreach, Market Research, Use Cases and Requirements, Harmonization, Tool Development.
The Kantara Initiative is working to bridge the enterprise, mobile, government and Web communities to provide the industry with a clear path for moving interoperable identity systems forward, advancing adoption and meeting marketplace and user needs.
See also
- Interop Vendor Alliance
- OASIS (organization)OASIS (organization)The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards is a global consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of e-business and web service standards...
- Windows CardSpaceWindows CardSpaceWindows CardSpace , is Microsoft's now-canceled client software for the Identity Metasystem. CardSpace is an instance of a class of identity client software called an Identity Selector. CardSpace stores references to users' digital identities for them, presenting them to users as visual...
- YADISYadisYadis is a communications protocol for discovery of services such as OpenID, OAuth, and XDI connected to a Yadis ID. While intended to discover digital identity services, Yadis is not restricted to those. Other services can easily be included....
- OpenIDOpenIDOpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities...
- OAuthOAuthOAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a...
- Identity management systemsIdentity management systemsAn identity management system refers to an information system, or to a set of technologies that can be used to support the management of identities.An identity management system:# Establishes the identity...
External links
- Liberty Alliance web site
- OpenLiberty Project
- U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-63 version 1.0.1 {NIST800-63}
- Concordia Project
- Privacy Summits
- Liberty Alliance Adoption by Sector
- Liberty Identity Assurance Framework
- Identity Governance FrameworkIdentity Governance FrameworkThe Identity Governance Framework is a strategic initiative of the Liberty Alliance that will define a set of standards to help enterprises easily determine and control how identity information is used, stored, and propagated in appropriate and secure ways using protocols such as LDAP, SAML, and...
- Liberty Interoperable (TM) certification program
- ArisID API
- Kantara Initiative