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By Robert Vamosi, 14 November 2008 12:45

NEWS

Equifax has introduced its first information card, the Equifax Over 18 card.

Such I-cards are designed to be the online equivalent of a driver's licence, passport, or similar ID. The basic idea is that customers use an electronic wallet with various information cards that allow them to bypass typing in user names and passwords.

Cheat Sheets

♦ Faster Payments
♦ Basel II
♦ MiFID
♦ Sarbanes-Oxley

In this case, the Equifax card proves, through a trusted third party, that a shopper is over 18 when accessing specially marked websites.

Steve Ely, president of Equifax Personal Information Solutions, in a statement: "With fraud and identity theft on the rise, companies need better, more secure ways to conduct transactions online and take their identity management practices to the next level."

In June Equifax was among a handful of companies behind the launch of the Information Card Foundation (ICF). Other companies include Google, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, and PayPal and Microsoft's Geneva project (the codename for the next version of CardSpace, the Microsoft user authentication system) relies upon ICF standards.

The Equifax card is one of the first I-cards based on the ICF standard that users can sign up and use.

In the near future, the foundation hopes that I-cards will contain personal data such as profile, purchase preference, payment, or verified identity information, as well as password information. Kim Cameron, an identity and access architect for Microsoft, told silicon.com's sister publication CNET News in June that the cards really do improve online security. "There's this endless digital baptism of filling in forms and logging in everywhere, and it creates a wonderful environment for the criminal element through phishing attacks and what have you because on the internet no one does know you are a dog."

To produce the card, Equifax worked with Parity, an information management company that last month announced an online card site based on open ID card standards.

Those interested in trying out the I-card can sign up with Equifax or use Parity's Azigo I-card management software to enable one-click sign-in and identity verification.