RED HERRING | Top 10 Trends: We know who you are

This article discusses why identity management will become important in the coming year. Unfortunately it views this as problem for the enterprise and ignores the much bigger problem of the home user. The home user will demand a system that provides both privacy and security, while allowing access to bank accounts, shopping, email - all without any exposure to risks currently accepted today.

This may not be the trend for 2005, but if enterprise tackles the issue then users will expect that the same solution they use at work, will also function just as well when they are at home. The problem here is that many of the possible enterprise solutions in use or development do not extend well beyond the work place. Two factor authentication will become the everyday practice, but this capability is difficult to extend to the Internet due to the cost of directory services and the need for security.

Microsoft is implementing a smartcard system, which uses a .Net based operating system running on the smartcard. This is different from the current crop of smartcards which generally run a Java OS.