A New Generation of Internet Authentication
By Zlatko Cvetanovski

Replacement for MS Passport opens up the technology to other platforms

 If you have used a public Microsoft web service, such as MSN or Hotmail, you already use a security and identity technology for the Internet called MS Passport.

MS Passport was Microsoft’s first attempt to create personal authentication on the Internet. MS Passport lets you log on any MS based web site, by allowing you to enter your username (email address) and password.

 Now Microsoft is about to release a new generation of Internet authentication software that will allow users to sign on to not only Microsoft-based web sites, but also any web site and service that supports it. The new technology is called MS InfoCard. The idea is to make it an open standard and integrate it with Windows XP and Vista. The new authentication software will keep track of user credentials to multiple web sites and services. The main goal is to help protect users against Internet stolen identities and manage multiple Internet credentials with an easy user Interface and standard authentication services. With MS Passport, the authentication service is provided only by Microsoft; with the new InfoCard, any company will be able to create their own authentication service. This will open up the technology to other platforms such as Unix and Linux. 

Here’s how the new InfoCard Rich User Interface looks:

Overall benefits