The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on Thursday awarded more than $15 million in new grants to six organizations to foster more secure online access to government and healthcare services as part of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC).
The awardees will pilot different online credentials to allow users to prove their identity across multiple systems, such as state services and consumer websites.
The awardees and their projects are: ID.me, Inc., $3.8 million to work with Austin, Texas, to develop a city-level blueprint for increased trust among participants in the sharing economy, and with Maine to implement a federated ID model to increase citizen access to benefits; Florida Dept. of Revenue, Child Support Program, $3.6 million to increase the number of online services available to customers, provide a single login identity, and improve security by offering customers device registration options; Ohio Dept. of Administrative Services, $3 million to implement a range of identity-related capabilities, including multi-factor authentication do strengthen identity proofing for three state-provided services; Yubico, Inc., $2.3 million for the Universal 2nd Factor Authentication for Government Services project on enabling secure online access to educational resources for students in Wisconsin and to state services for residents of Colorado; Gemalto, Inc., $2 million for the “Interoperable, Trusted Ecosystems for Digital Driver Licenses and ID Cards for Mobile Devices for U.S. Jurisdictions project to offer a digital driver’s license via a mobile application in Colorado, Idaho, Maryland and Washington, D.C.; and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, $1 million for a single federated identity login to simplify patient transition from the medical center, which is an acute-care setting, to post-acute care settings by offering patients and healthcare providers easier access to information.
The NSTIC program has awarded 24 pilot grants since 2012. The program seeks to improve the security and ease of online identities for individuals and organizations.