IBM announces new cloud-based identity protection

Many of the things we do online require an ID and password, but typically whilst this makes things easier for the site it doesn't always do a lot to protect the user, who may be revealing more information than they need.

For example you may have to reveal your full date of birth and address to a video streaming service in order to verify your age and region, running a risk that the information may fall into the wrong hands.

Now researchers at IBM have announced plans for a new cloud-based technology to help consumers guard their personal data.

The technology, called Identity Mixer, uses a cryptographic algorithm to encrypt the identity attributes of a user, such as their age, nationality, address and credit card number in a way that allows the user to reveal only selected pieces to third parties.

Identity Mixer can be used within a digital wallet, which contains credentials certified by a trusted third party, such as a government-issued electronic identity card. It's important to note that the issuer of the credentials has no knowledge of how and when they are being used.

"Identity Mixer enables users to choose precisely which data to share, and with whom," says Christina Peters, IBM's Chief Privacy Officer. "Now web service providers can improve their risk profile and enhance trust with customers, and it's all in the cloud, making it easy for developers to program".

Taking the example of the video site above, Identity Mixer would be able to confirm a user's age and region without revealing any more. This ensures that even if the website is hacked personal data remains safe.

Similarly, if you wanted to make a payment Identity Mixer would be able to confirm that a credit card is valid and that it can accept payment, without actually revealing the full card number or expiration date.

Identity Mixer is now being made available to developers as an easy-to-use web service in IBM Bluemix, IBM's new platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud. Beginning this spring, Bluemix subscribers will be able to experiment with Identity Mixer within their own applications and web services. Using simple pull-down menus, developers can choose the types of data that they wish to secure and Bluemix will provide the code, which can then be embedded.

"Identity Mixer incorporates more than a decade of research to bring the concept of minimal disclosure of identity-related data to reality, and now it is ready to use for both computers and mobile device transactions," says Dr. Jan Camenisch, cryptographer and co-inventor of Identity Mixer at IBM Research.

You can find out more about Identity Mixer and how it works on the IBM website.

Image Credit: Nata-Lia/ Shutterstock