The Sixth Annual Symposium of the Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC) will be held on 20 October and will see the launch of IAAC's work on Identity Assurance. Speakers at this year's Symposium include, Alan Jebson, COO, HSBC Holdings, Katherine Courtney, Identity Card Programme Director, Home Office, Peter Sommer, LSE, and Andrew Miller, MP, Chairman, PITCOM.

The aim of the Symposium is to develop a useful agenda for progressing Identity Assurance in the UK, as actor within the global context, and will bring together organisations and people that help shape the future. The IAAC Identity Assurance Agenda will express a vision, and should prioritise the steps in the coming years from both public and private sector.

In today's society, in which more and more business is done on-line, Identity is fast becoming the 'single organising principle' around which businesses, governments and the citizen interact. Despite recent political attention and media hype about identity cards, identity theft, on-line fraud and privacy concerns, the debate about the way ahead on "Identity Assurance" is yet to begin.

Businesses are embracing identity management as a route to providing additional layers of security in their organisations and with others in the value chain. For government identity is a key enabling model for the responsible delivery of various e-government services, in particular those highly dependent on the identity of the citizen served, but also in order to better protect society against crime and terrorism. The citizen, meanwhile, must consider how best to ensure his or her interests in a world where "identity" represents "who you are".

Typical citizen concerns are often sensationalised in newspapers. Such concerns are nonetheless very genuine and real to the individual: identity theft may mean someone impersonates you, or pretends to be somebody you think you know and/or trust, which may lead to financial and even social damage. Any action linked to identity could raise privacy concerns, resulting in a lack of trust. Any lack of ability to link identity to individuals may raise security concerns. What checks and balances need to be put in place?

By taking a multi-disciplinary approach to the future challenges of Identity Management, IAAC will highlight the issues at the Symposium to be developed into policy recommendations through its work in 2006.

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www.iaac.org.uk

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