The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on Tuesday announced five new projects valued at more than $7 million aimed at helping to develop more secure ways to conduct business online, building on existing pilot projects begun last year.
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Through its National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), NIST is working with the private sector to accelerate the creation of an identity ecosystem by putting resources behind potential solutions that go from concepts and theories into an executed plan. The identity ecosystem refers to an online environment where individuals, businesses and other organizations operate with greater privacy, trust and security in conducting sensitive transactions.
“The Obama administration is committed to supporting public-private partnerships that both enhance consumer privacy and ensure the Internet remains a driver of innovation and economic growth,” Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said in a statement on Tuesday. “The grants announced today will support privacy-enhancing technologies that help make Internet transactions more secure, including better protection from fraud and identity theft, and are an important step toward giving American companies and consumers greater confidence in doing business online.”
The awardees include Exponent, $1.6 million, which will issue secure, easy-to-use and privacy-enhancing credentials to users to help secure applications at a leading social media company, a healthcare organization and the Defense Department.
The Georgia Tech Research Corp. is getting $1.7 million to develop and demonstrate a “Trustmark Framework” that seeks to improve trust, interoperability and privacy within the identity ecosystem.
ID.me, Inc.’s Troop ID is receiving $1.2 million to develop and pilot trusted identity solutions that will allow military families to access sensitive information online from government agencies, financial institutions and healthcare organizations in a more privacy enhancing, secure and efficient manner.
NIST is granting Privacy Vaults Online, Inc., $1.6 million to pilot a solution that will provide families with COPPA-compliant, secure, privacy-enhancing credentials that will enable parents and guardians to authorize their children to interact with online services in a more privacy-enhancing and usable way.
Finally, Transglobal Secure Collaboration Participation, Inc., was awarded $1.3 million to deploy trusted credentials to conduct secure business-to-business, government-to-business and retail transactions for small and medium-sized businesses and financial services companies, including Fidelity Investments and Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
“Collectively, these five pilots will drive innovation in online identity management, helping to foster a marketplace of more secure, convenient, privacy-enhancing identity solutions available to all Americans online,” Jeremy Grant, head of the NSTIC National Program Office, said in a statement.
Nist plans to award additional pilot grants this week or next worth about $10 million.