" The Internet was built without a way to know who and what you are connecting to. This limits what we can do with it and exposes us to growing dangers. If we do nothing, we will face rapidly proliferating episodes of theft and deception which will cumulatively erode public trust in the Internet. "

Kim Cameron

Architect of Identity, Microsoft Corporation

The Internet isn't a Vault

Why is it seemingly so easy to industrialise fraud and identity crime? The problem is incredibly complex and has its roots back as far as the 18th Century. Decisions taken over decades in good faith have layered one upon the other to create the mother of all unintended consequences.

Two Decades of Neglecting the Digital Identity Crisis

Kim Cameron's work was foundational, but a lot has happened in the intervening 20 years. Now not only do we need to implement his rules, we have to solve the problems caused by doing nothing for twenty years.

The Future of Trust

In his paper, Kim Cameron called for an identity layer for the internet. Self has spent six years researching and developing a solution to that challenge. Here, we look at what that is.

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Encrypted, but to whom?

Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with someone impersonating Trump's chief of staff. He worked out the impersonation. The problem is that they could reach him at all. The device in a public official's pocket has no identity layer.

Authentication

Authentication is meant to establish that a person is who they say they are. In practice, the mechanism checks a credential — and adding more factors does not change what is checked. The research asks how authentication can check the person, not just the credential.

Digital signatures

Digital signatures inherited the name from wet ink but the mechanism is actually cryptography. Digital signature tiers are honest accommodations for an identity gap they cannot close. The research asks what a signature is, once the document is no longer the point.

In 2005 Kim Cameron warned us what would happen if we did nothing about identity.