Silicon Forest and the Identity Management Working Group
Sometimes, I get pretty focused on OpenID-flavored identity management. But there are other startups in town working on a different type of identity management. The kind that involves your offline existence. (If there is a such a thing.)
The Santa Fe Group, a respected consultancy focusing on fraud reduction, has just announced the formation of its “Identity Management Working Group.” Among the group’s top concerns will be the growth of business identity theft, in which bogus entities use existing business names to compromise business accounts.
And the group has two Silicon Forest ties, one direct and one tangential.
First, the direct. Rick Kam of ID Safeguards, a Beaverton-based startup focusing on the identity fraud protection and compromised identity recovery, has been named the chair of the new organization.
“Collaboration is a critical component of curbing identity theft ,” said Kam. “This group will work together and with the industry at large to share knowledge that will find new and effective ways to protect us all.”
Second, the tangential. CheckFree, parent company of recently acquired Hillsboro-based startup Corillian, is also part of the working group.
Interesting news for the Silicon Forest, and perhaps the early rumblings of an opportunity.
What if all of the “identity” focused folks here in town got together and started working on this whole problem? I’m thinking these fraud protection folks, the Portland-based OpenID folks like JanRain, and the soon-to-have-a-Portland-office, rethinking-online-credentials Vidoop folks could have a pretty interesting conversation.
Things people have said about this post
From Jeff the Great on February 7th, 2008 at 10:20 am
not to be picky, but I’d hardly call Corillian a startup….weren’t they a public company at one point?
From Rick Turoczy on February 7th, 2008 at 10:54 am
It’s more of a startup than Tektronix or Nike.
Sorry, we were young hotshot startups just down the street from one another, Corillian and MedicaLogic, so I always think of them in that light.
Your assessment, however, is completely fair.
From Jeff the Great on February 7th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Funny..I still see the MedicaLogic logo on the computer screen at my Doctors office…guess they haven’t purchased any updates from GE or whoever owns it now.