Microsoft to back open ID scheme
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Microsoft declares its support for a scheme that aims to make it easier to maintain online identities.
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Yahoo appears close to implementing OpenID, a Web authentication standard that relieves people of the need to remember multiple passwords to log into different Web sites.
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Microsoft is calling IBM out over its opposition to Office Open XML, saying it is attempting to create a movement to prevent ISO standardization of the format. In an open letter posted to its Web site, Microsoft claims IBM is trying to limit choice by pushing the OpenDocument Format.
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Microsoft Corp. said on Sunday that it would share the underlying software code for its Office program as part of its efforts to make governments more confident in the security and compatibility
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(InfoWorld) - Public key infrastructure is poised for a resurgence, with associated identity technologies increasingly underpinning applications as organizations look to securely share information, vendors said Tuesday at a standards conference in London. While it was a hot buzzword during the peak of the technology boom, PKI fell out of favor as IT projects were increasingly seen as bloated and without sufficient focus. "PKI still has a lot of perception problems," said Stijn Bijnens, senior vice president of identity management for Cybertrust. Bijnens was one of several participants in a conference by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (Oasis), a consortium that developments standards for business applications. PKI uses certificates that have been verified by a certification authority and allows other organizations or people to exchange trusted information. PKI simplifies e-government and e-commerce by letting a person identify themselves once to a certification authority that vouches for the person's identity when they interact with other organizations in the infrastructure. Several changes in IT should spur growth of PKI. Microsoft Corp.'s release of its next generation OS, Windows Vista, contains technology to help users manage identities, called CardSpace, Bijnens said. CardSpace will allow users going to compatible Web sites to have greater control over how their personal information is released. While it's unknown how CardSpace will work with other identity technologies, it should help grow the market for certificate accreditation and procedures around identity verification, Bijnens said. "Microsoft just enables the market for everyone," Bijnens said. Governments are undertaking electronic-identity projects that should also foster interest in PKI technology, Bijnens said. But PKI technology faces hurdles, too. The technology is growing increasingly complex even for those familiar with it, said Arshad Noor, of StrongAuth Inc. Noor said he was once involved with a PKI implementation at one of the largest pharmaceutical companies for its 120,000 employees worldwide. The chief executive officer (CEO) expected the rollout could be done in about five weeks. The rollout eventually finished, but not on the CEO's time scale, he said. "It was absolutely crazy," Noor said. "I think management needs to understand they are implementing more and more complex technology." Also key are the policies built around identity sharing. However, those policies often must rapidly be adjusted as businesses acquire other ones or business processes change, Noor said. Another problem with exchanging identities using PKI is establishing one authority that can vouch for identities, something that so far hasn't happened. "The framework doesn't exist yet," Noor said. Â
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p2pnet.net News:- The plan being promoted largely by Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo and Earthlink to get Sender-ID accepted as a standard is losing credibility.
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Biometric and smart-card technology will replace passwords to verify ID, Microsoft head Bill Gates says. Again.
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Under threat of new multimillion fines, Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that it had signed up its first licensee for a scheme EU regulators told it to set up three years ago to share code that helps servers work with the Windows operating platform.
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LONDON -- In a deal that appears to buck the growing trend among governments to adopt open-source alternatives, the U.K.'s Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is negotiating a renewal of a three-year agreement with Microsoft Corp.
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By ANICK JESDANUN NEW YORK - Smaller and newer businesses will now be able to get security certificates that trigger a green address bar in Microsoft browsers under new rules ratified this week.
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Microsoft throws its weight behind OpenID, an emerging Web authentication standard.
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Microsoft will let governments access the computer code behind its Office software as part of a broader campaign to provide alternatives to open-source applications.
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SOFTWARE KING Microsoft&#39;s anti-open source obsession seems to have killed chances of its anti-Spam Sender ID getting accepted by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a standard.
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With the closure of IETF&#39;s MARID group a month ago, many of us have left Microsoft&#39;s Sender-ID standard for the dead. After being rejected by the Apache Foundation and the Debian Project over licensing issues
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Microsoft is hoping to beat the fraudsters and trace large-scale counterfeiters of Windows XP OEM with a free checking and replacement scheme for users.
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(InfoWorld) - It may be Valentine's Day but there are no love letters being exchanged between duelling electronic document formats, ODF (OpenDocument Format) and Open XML. Instead, Microsoft, the backer of Open XML, took a public swing at ODF supporter IBM. Microsoft posted an open letter on its Web site Wednesday titled "Interoperability, Choice, and Open XML," signed by two of its general managers -- Tom Robertson, who handles interoperability and standards, and Jean Paoli, responsible for interoperability and XML architecture. In the letter, Microsoft claimed that IBM is attempting to slow down the approval process by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to recognize Open XML as an international standard. IBM declined to comment publicly on the letter, but a spokesman said the company had previously addressed many of the issues raised by Microsoft. In May, ISO approved ODF as an international standard and is currently considering whether to award the same recognition to Open XML. ODF has the backing of such companiesÂ as IBM, Google, Novell, Sun, and open-source players. Open XML is the default file format for Microsoft's Office 2007 desktop applications suite. What has yet to become clear is which document format users will favor -- ODF or Open XML -- or whether they'd adopt a mix of the two. Some vendors, such as Corel, have already announced they're adopting a neutral approach and will support both formats in their software. IT users and governments around the world are expressing interest in open-standard document formats to help ensure continued access to archived information and also free them from having to use Microsoft's Office software. In December, standards body ECMA International voted 20 to 1 to approve Open XML as a global standard and submitted the format to ISO for its approval. The dissenting vote came from IBM, according to Microsoft. "IBM has declared victory in blocking Open XML," the Microsoft letter alleges, claiming that IBM is holding up the standards process in a "blatant attempt" to limit choice in the marketplace designed to favor the vendor's Lotus Notes groupware, which doesn't support Open XML. Microsoft and IBM are the two leading desktop collaboration software vendors with IBM's Notes pitted against Microsoft's Outlook and Exchange software. Microsoft is fearful that ODF may become the de facto electronic document format by default simply because it was first to achieve ISO recognition as an international standard, the letter stated. "In XML-based file formats, which can easily interoperate through translators and be implemented side by side in productivity software, this exclusivity makes no sense -- except to those who lack confidence in their ability to compete in the marketplace on the technical merits of their alternative standard," the letter continued. "This campaign to limit choice and force their single standard on consumers should be resisted." The timing of the release of Microsoft's letter is interesting given that it comes a day after the Oasis standards body announced its approval of a new version of the ODF standard, OpenDocument 1.1. The changes in ODF 1.1 are designed to address concerns voiced by advocacy groups that the previous release didn't meet the needs of people with disabilities. The level of accessibility support provided in ODF 1.1 is now on a par or exceeds that available in other file formats. Â
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InfoWorld - It may be Valentine&#39;s Day but there are no love letters being exchanged between duelling electronic document formats, ODF (OpenDocument Format) and Open XML. Instead, Microsoft, the backer of Open XML, took a public swing at ODF supporter IBM.