Understanding Windows CardSpace: An Introduction to the Concepts and Challenges of Digital Identities

Windows CardSpace empowers organizations to prevent identity theft and systematically address a broad spectrum of security and privacy challenges. Understanding Windows CardSpaceis the first insider’s guide to Windows CardSpace and the broader topic of identity management for technical and business professionals. Drawing on the authors’ unparalleled experience earned by working with the CardSpace product team and by implementing state-of-the-art CardSpace-based systems at leading enterprises, it offers unprecedented insight into the realities of identity management: from planning and design through deployment.

Part I introduces the fundamental concepts of user-centered identity management, explains the context in which Windows CardSpace operates, and reviews the problems CardSpace aims to solve. Next, the authors walk through CardSpace from a technical standpoint, describing its technologies, elements, artifacts, operations and development practices, and usage scenarios. Finally, they carefully review the design and business considerations associated with architecting solutions based on CardSpace or any other user-centered identity management

system. Coverage includes

• The limitations of current approaches to authentication and identity management
• Detailed information on advanced Web services
• The Identity Metasystem, the laws of identity, and the ideal authentication system
• Windows CardSpace: What it is, how it works, and how developers and managers can use it in their organizations
• CardSpace technology: user experience, Information Cards, private desktops, and integration with .NET 3.5 and Windows Vista
• CardSpace implementation: from HTML integration through federation, Web services integration, and beyond
• Adding personal card support to a website: a detailed, scenario-based explanation
• Choosing or becoming an identity provider: opportunities, business impacts, operational issues, and pitfalls to avoid
• Using CardSpace to leverage trust relationships and overcome phishing

Whether you’re a developer, security specialist, or business decision-maker, this book will answer your most crucial questions about identity management, so you can protect everything that matters: your people, your assets, your partners, and your customers.

Foreword xv

Preface xviii

Part I Setting the Context

Chapter 1: The Problem 3

The Advent of Profitable Digital Crime 4

Passwords: Ascent and Decline 29

The Babel of Cryptography 36

The Babel of Web User Interfaces 79

Summary 84

Chapter 2: Hints Toward a Solution 87

A World Without a Center 89

The Seven Laws of Identity 92

The Identity Metasystem 110

Trust 115

WS-* Web Services Specifications: The Reification of the Identity Metasystem 136

Presenting Windows CardSpace 161

Summary 164

Part II THE TECHNOLOGY

Chapter 3: Windows CardSpace 169

CardSpace Walkthroughs 169

Is CardSpace Just for Websites? 175

System Requirements 176

What CardSpace Provides 177

A Deeper Look at Information Cards 184

Features of the CardSpace UI 204

Common CardSpace Management Tasks 210

User Experience Changes in .NET Framework 3.5 218

Summary 221

Chapter 4: CardSpace Implementation 223

Using CardSpace in the Browser 224

Federation with CardSpace 248

CardSpace and Windows Communication Foundation 252

CardSpace Without Web Services 262

Summary 268

Chapter 5: Guidance for a Relying Party 269

Deciding to Be a Relying Party 270

Putting CardSpace to Work 274

Privacy and Liability 299

Summary 302

Part III PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Chapter 6: Identity Consumers 305

Common Misconceptions about Becoming an Identity Provider 306

Criteria for Selecting an Identity Provider 309

Relying on an IP 315

Migration Issues 320

Summary 321

Chapter 7: Identity Providers 323

Uncovering the Rationale for Becoming an Identity Provider 324

What Does an Identity Provider Have to Offer? 334

Walking a Mile in the User’s Shoes 338

An Organization’s Identity 341

Summary 342

Index 343

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Understanding identity theft and how to prevent it

Identity theft is an important and often overlooked, which has increased in recent years. This increase can the ease with which personal data can be collected and the popularity of the Internet with various factors, as well as one of the factors. Most of the identity theft that occurs happens because someone of their personal information was negligent, while on the Internet. Identity theft affects people, in different regions and with different backgrounds. Identity thieves often select their victims, and if you are not careful, you can the various methods easily victims they use to collect personal information.

The current occurrence of identity theft in your life can result in a situation where you feel very devastated. Those that theft attacks are behind identity your identity unscrupulously as possible uses, to obtain financial benefits from the use of your identity. Is all bad, what can happen financially. You will empty your bank accounts and give you your money. You make as you and apply for a loan, get a new drivers license and a crime to commit to you. You will use your identity to empty a new credit card and the credit card before you know it at all. Their money and other things that can do with your financial situation happen so quickly that you won't be able to stop him. The only time that you find out that is, if you will be called, offer a specific bank or other responses on a credit card statement, of which you know nothing.

People to steal identities people use different types of methods to steal information, that can look at you, private or personal. Who uses your information to steal to use in these things for illegal and financial. You are not sure on the problems to find out how $1 million to pay or send a Christmas gift to your door. The theft of personal data is carried out usually over the Internet as a means to run. Different forms of software known as spyware can be installed on your computer. The spyware can record then personal or private information that you type on your computer. Some of this personal information may include information such as your social security number or credit card information. If you are unhappy, lose you both and much more. Their passwords and social security information guarantee typically these criminals access to almost all financial, which concerns you. Visit http://www.identity-theft-protection-center.com to learn more about identity theft.

To protect themselves from identity theft on the Internet, you can a different means of security. Get a browser that is anti-phishing complaint. Also, make sure that you never click links in an E-mail asking you to disclose personal or financial information to third parties. Antivirus programs, you can browse your email and your computer to see while you work. In this way is your protection from these distributors ensure disaster.

Kelly Hunter operates http://www.identity-theft-protection-center.com and writes about identity theft.