The Smart Card Alliance Identity Council will turn its attention to cybersecurity and healthcare identity in the upcoming year, the Council said today, while continuing its work to educate and make identity credentialing recommendations for corporate enterprise, healthcare, state and local governments, and more. The Identity Council also announced new officers and steering committee, and plans to attend the Smart Card Alliance 8th Annual Smart Cards in Government Conference in Washington, DC.
"With the Obama administration making cybersecurity a priority, and President Obama naming a cybersecurity czar any day, this is clearly an issue to which we will be paying close attention," said new Identity Council chair Neville Pattinson, vice president of government affairs and standards at Gemalto. "As the administration builds a comprehensive national security strategy, we hope to help by educating on the use of technology to securely authenticate individuals on the Internet."
This past year, the Identity Council collaborated with the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council on a number of projects, including a National Press Club briefing in Washington, DC, last May. The purpose of the briefing was to raise awareness of the importance of privacy, access and identity in the Obama administration's effort to modernize the nation's healthcare information infrastructure. The two Councils also collaborated on the brief, "Effective Healthcare Identity Management: A Necessary First Step for Improving U.S. Healthcare Information Systems - A Smart Card Alliance Brief for Government Policy Makers and Other Stakeholders."