All U.K. national government departments and their agencies are now required to comply with open standards principles outlined in a Nov. 1 document (.pdf) from the Cabinet Office. The open standards policy promotes the use of interoperable information technology systems, data and document formats.

The document encourages local government and the wider public sector to adopt the principles as well. British national government agencies not complying with the new principles must apply for an exemption.

If identity-management-as-a-service is to take hold among enterprises it
will need to be anchored by well-crafted rules for establishing trust
that incorporate legal parameters and policy requirements, according to a
pair of identity experts.

The rapid adoption of mobile devices and cloud services together
with a multitude of new partnerships and customer-facing applications
has extended the identity boundary of today’s enterprise. For the extended enterprise,
identity and access management (IAM) is more than just provisioning
employees with and enforcing the appropriate access to corporate
resources.

Five pilot projects unveiled by the federal government, if successful,
should build trust in online commerce, helping to boost the economy,
says Jeremy Grant, head of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities
in Cyberspace National Program office.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today announced more than $9 million in grant awards to support the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). Five U.S. organizations will pilot identity solutions that increase confidence in online transactions, prevent identity theft, and provide individuals with more control over how they share their personal information.