Digital Identity: Unmasking Identity Management Architecture (Ima)

by Phillip J. Windley

The rise of network-based, automated services in the past decade has definitely changed the way businesses operate, but not always for the better. Offering services, conducting transactions and moving data on the Web opens new opportunities, but many CTOs and CIOs are more concerned with the risks. Like the rulers of medieval cities, they've adopted a siege mentality, building walls to keep the bad guys out. It makes for a secure perimeter, but...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596008783
• ISBN13: 9780596008789
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book on Identity Management

Identity Management is my day to day job as our company heavily focuses on various IAM initiatives.I was always looking for a book that can give enough material on how to go about design, deploy IAM solutions. This book is the one for it. This book really deserves 5 stars. Thanks, Ramnath Krishnamurthi, C.E.0 Like Minds Consulting Inc, New York, U.S.A

Short but useful intro to identity management

This book is designed to familiarize CIOs, IT managers, and other IT professionals with the language, concepts, and technology of digital identity. Managing digital identity is one of the most fundamental activities in IT and a good identity management strategy is the key to not only protecting the enterprise from attack, but, more important, providing flexible access for partners, customers, and employees to needed information and systems. This book is not a book with code examples and recipes for building digital identity management systems. Even so, it is a technical book that explains the technology of digital identity in some detail. More importantly, the book puts the technology in context and shows how it can all be put to the task of managing digital identities inside your organization. The book is divided into three sections. The first section is about the core concepts in digital identity, including privacy and trust. The second section discusses the technology of digital identity. The third section portrays in some detail a process, called an identity management architecture (IMA), that you can use to build a digital identity infrastructure in your organization, regardless of its size or organization. The information in the last section is prescriptive in nature. Because of his experiences, the author has a clear philosophy on how to build an IMA. He therefore presents a rather detailed series of steps that show how to create an IMA and how to use it. I found the book quite accessible, and this isn't even an area of my expertise. I would recommend it for anyone trying to get started in the field, especially if you're a manager. The following is the table of contents: Chapter 1. Introduction Section 1.1. Business Opportunity Section 1.2. Digital Identity Matters Section 1.3. Using Digital Identity Section 1.4. The Business Context of Identity Section 1.5. Foundational Technologies for Digital Identity Section 1.6. Identity Management Architectures Chapter 2. Defining Digital Identity Section 2.1. The Language of Digital Identity Section 2.2. Identity Scenarios in the Physical World Section 2.3. Identity, Security, and Privacy Section 2.4. Digital Identity Perspectives Section 2.5. Identity Powershifts Section 2.6. Conclusion Chapter 3. Trust Section 3.1. What Is Trust? Section 3.2. Trust and Evidence Section 3.3. Trust and Risk Section 3.4. Reputation and Trust Communities Section 3.5. Conclusion Chapter 4. Privacy and Identity Section 4.1. Who's Afraid of RFID? Section 4.2. Privacy Pragmatism Section 4.3. Privacy Drivers Section 4.4. Privacy Audits Section 4.5. Privacy Policy Capitalism Section 4.6. Anonymity and Pseudonymity Section 4.7. Privacy Principles Section 4.8. Prerequisites Section 4.9. Conclusion Chapter 5. The Digital Identity Lifecycle Section 5.1. Provisioning Section 5.2. Propagating Section 5.3. Using Section 5.4. Maintaining Section 5.5. Deprovisioning Section 5.6. Conclusion

If you want to know IDM and do not know whwere to start!

One of the best coverings of the Identity Management space and I am sure that Phillip could have written several thousand more pages on the subject. Excellent for any CXO that thinks there might be something to this Identity Management. I wish all the CXO's I have worked with in the this space had read this book, it would sure save them and me a lot of time and them a lot of money wasted on "stop-gaps" that are sure to be dead-on-delivery projects.

Covers all the bases and then some

Very well written and organized, this book can save you a lot of grief. Author is absolutely correct, Identity Management is a far less technical subject than it is political. To execute properly a huge amount of up-front planning is necessary, and a lot of consensus-building. I very much liked the attitude that IdM should be viewed as an enabler, not a restrictor like so many attributes of security.

Excellent architectural overview of identity management

If you are looking for an architectural level book on tracking and maintaining identity in distributed systems this book is for you. If you are looking for something about managing your personal digital identity, there is nothing here for you. In addition those looking for code samples beware. There are some XML code fragments but this is an architectural level book, which means, no code. The writing is great, and the illustrations are used well to cut through what are often some complex interactions between multiple digital authorities. Definitely worth the look if you know what you are getting.