2009-2013 IAWG Charter

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Jan 07, 2014

(1) WG NAME (and any acronym or abbreviation of the name): The WG name, acronym and abbreviation must not include trademarks not owned by the Organization, or content that is infringing, harmful, or inappropriate.

Identity Assurance Work Group (IAWG)

(2) PURPOSE: Please provide a clear statement of purpose and justification why the proposed WG is necessary.

The Identity Assurance Work Group (IAWG) within the Kantara Initiative fosters the adoption of trusted online identity services aligned to levels of assurance (LOA) ranging from low to very high.

To advance this goal, the IAWG will provide a forum for evolving the Identity Assurance Framework (IAF) and furthering market adoption of federated identity services at a global scale by working with the Board of Trustees to establish the necessary support programs for accrediting and certifying various roles in the ecosystem, such as Credential Service Providers and Federation Operators.

The framework and processes will be defined in a way that scales, enables business processes and benefits individual users of services provided at specific identity LOA. The final deliverables will be a suite of harmonized, best-of-breed industry standards for the assessment of identity services, and support for inter-party trust and inter-federation, as well as policies, operating rules, guidelines and recommended practices to foster adoption of identity assurance-based solutions.

(3) SCOPE: Explain the scope and definition of the planned work.

The IAWG's goal is to provide public and private sector organizations with well-defined means of relying on identity credentials and assertions issued by a variety of identity service providers for both authentication and authorization, in order to advance trusted identity federation and thereby facilitate broad user acceptance. In line with this goal, here is IAWG’s scope:

  • Define standards and frameworks for identity assurance policy for both the public and private sectors at a global scale
  • Promote wider use of identity credentials at various LOA.
  • Analyze technology, policies, standards, and solutions relating to identity federation and identity assurance.
  • Identify opportunities where adoption of the IAF could save time and resources in implementing identity federations
  • Formulate pragmatic guidelines, recommended practices, proposed deployment models and methodologies for organizations to adopt solutions and approaches to online services that leverage identity assurance
  • Seek harmonization and standardization – avoid "re-inventing the wheel" or needlessly duplicating effort by identifying best practices across multiple industry sectors in this globally diverse working group and investing in productive liaison relationships across industries and geographies.

The following areas are not considered part of the scope of IAWG:

  • Definition of technical standards, whether for identity assurance or authentication assurance – the focus of IAWG will remain technology agnostic, and strategy/policy oriented.
  • Evaluation of technology or products to comply with particular identity assurance specifications – whether this is authentication technology, identity verification services, credentialing technologies, and the like.
  • Management or direct oversight of certification and assessment programs designed to facilitate compliance with the IAWG output.

(4) DRAFT TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS: List Working Titles of draft Technical Specifications to be produced (if any), projected completion dates, and the Standards Setting Organization(s) to which they will be submitted upon approval by the Membership.

As per the scope defined in section (3) above, IAWG will not be producing technical specifications..

(5) OTHER DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS: Other Draft Recommendations and projected completion dates for submission for All Member Ballot.

  • A set of strategic recommendations to the Kantara Initiative Board of Trustees regarding the development and operation of an Identity Assurance Certification program to advance the adoption of the IAF that would serve to foster inter-federation deployments on a global scale. (Summer, 2009).
  • The Identity Assurance Framework (IAF) – which is a compendium of documents including guidelines, procedural and technical trust criteria for identity service providers, relying parties and federations, and assessment methodologies for determining conformance to trust criteria. The IAF will be based on broad input from both public and private industry stakeholders with relevant experience.

Here are the currently identified deliverables that are part of the IAF along with their expected publication timeline:

  • Overview (Summer, 2009)
  • Glossary (Summer, 2009)
  • Assurance Levels (Summer , 2009)
  • Assurance Assessment Scheme (Summer, 2009
  • Assessor Qualification & Requirements (Summer, 2009)
  • Service Assessment Criteria (Summer, 2009)
  • Service Approval Authority Requirements (Summer, 2009)
  • Federation Operator Rules and Guidelines (Q4, 2009)
  • Relying Party Guidelines (Q1, 2010)

Note: Estimated completion dates accompanying each deliverable are subject to change.

(6) LEADERSHIP: Proposed WG Chair and Editor(s) (if any) subject to confirmation by a vote of the WG Participants.

The IAWG will have the following roles:

  • An IAWG Chair – A single individual will hold this role. Its responsibilities are: provide overall coordination, administrative oversight, public representation and decision-making ability over certain topics. This position will be elected by the members of the group in accordance with the Kantara Initiative Operating Procedures and ByLaws. The initial election for all leadership positions should be called approximately 2 weeks after the Leadership Council approves the charter so that membership quorum is gathered.
  • IAWG Vice Chair – There should be a minimum of two. The Vice Chair will lead specific areas within the work group as scoped by the Chair. The Vice Chair will be responsible for successful completion of work and deliverables within the specific scope of the area of focus. The initial requirement is a Vice Chair of Technology (to ensure quality review and feedback to the IAF from a technical implement-ability perspective and facilitate appropriate liaisons with outside technical groups) and a Vice Chair of Policy (to ensure quality review and feedback to the IAF and facilitate appropriate liaisons with outside policy groups).
  • IAWG Task Leader – There could be as many of these leaders as deemed appropriate by the group in order to complete specific tasks. These roles will be held by volunteer group members, appointed by either the Chair or Vice Chair under which the particular task falls. The Task Leader is responsible for successful completion of work and deliverables assigned. Examples: specific documents within the IAF set, such as the Relying Party guidelines or attribute level identity assurance. The Task Leader's terms of reference and duration will be established on appointment and will be driven by the focus of the task.

Note: During the transition phase of the Liberty Alliance Identity Assurance Expert Group (IAEG) into IAWG, Frank Villavicencio, current member of IAEG and registered member of Kantara Initiative, will act as the primary liaison and point of contact for the Leadership Council, as well as “convener” during the initial formation of the work group, until a Chair is elected.

(7) AUDIENCE: Anticipated audience or users of the work.

  • Credential Service Providers
  • Federation Operators
  • Relying Parties
  • Policy Makers
  • Assessors
  • International standards development organizations focused on identity management
  • Industry consortia and communities of interest focused on either a specific identity management technology or an industry segment building recommendations for identity management best practice

(8) DURATION: Objective criteria for determining when the work of the WG has been completed (or a statement that the WG is intended to be a standing WG to address work that is expected to be ongoing).

The IAWG is chartered to be an ongoing Work Group in the Kantara Initiative to maintain the Recommendations it produces over time. Its charter may be amended from time to time, with changes approved by the Leadership Council.

(9) IPR POLICY: The Organization approved Intellectual Property Rights Policy under which the WG will operate.

Kantara IPR Policy - Option Liberty

(10) RELATED WORK AND LIAISONS: Related work being done in other WGs or other organizations and any proposed liaison with those other WGs or organizations.

Part of the mission and goal of IAWG is the harmonization and collaboration with other industry and standards organizations that have synergy with identity assurance concepts. Therefore it is integral to the success of IAWG, that it maintains active communications, collaboration, contribution and liaison with groups including but not limited to:

  • Industry Consortia: ICF, OIDF, and OASIS
  • ISO SC27
  • ITU-T SG17
  • INCITS CS1
  • ANSI IDSP (Identity Proofing Standards)
  • tScheme
  • Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
  • InCommon
  • TERENA – Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association
  • Kantara work groups: Concordia, Identity Assurance Interoperability, Privacy & Public Policy, Consumer Identity, Healthcare Identity Assurance, etc.

(11) CONTRIBUTIONS (optional): A list of contributions that the proposers anticipate will be made to the WG.

  • Identity Assurance Framework Set (version 1.1 created by Liberty IAEG in 2008)
  • Identity Assurance Framework - Read Me (created by Liberty IAEG in 2008)

(12) PROPOSERS: Names, email addresses, and any constituent affiliations of at least the minimum set of proposers required to support forming the WG.

  • Myisha Frazier-Mcelveen, CitiGroup
  • Rich Furr, SAFE Bio-Pharma
  • Nigel Tedeschi, British Telecom
  • Frank Villavicencio, NetStar-1