Imagine being able to carry your computer network identity and security passwords on a single card which would allow you to work on the same company program or spreadsheet anywhere in the world.

It’s a vision where you, and not just your wireless device, are the truly mobile player, says Mark Tolliver, executive vice-president of marketing and business development for California-based Sun Microsystems Inc., a major developer of servers and software for network computing.

Mark Tolliver

And while the idea of smart cards – which can feature microchips that store personal and financial data – aren’t new, Sun and a consortium of other industry leaders are working on refining technology that will allow ubiquitous, secure digital identity across the Internet.

“Right now, people think mobility is something you do on a wireless device. Of course it is – but mobility is greater than wireless,” Tolliver told about 100 IT professionals at a meeting of the Calgary chapter of the Canadian Information Processing Society last week.
“I think the opportunity we have in front of us, is thinking along the terms of carrying something as small as a smart card that contains my authentication, my security information, and that allows me to use whatever device is most convenient at the time.”

Sun is a founding member of the Liberty Alliance Project (www.projectliberty.org), formed in 2001 to create technology that will allow a single sign-on across multiple websites and, eventually, multiple devices connected to the Internet, including cellphones and point-of-sale terminals.

“It’s the working environment that needs to be mobile, not some physical device. But I think that’s a decade-long
challenge,” Tolliver added.

There’s huge value for both consumers and businesses to share credentials across various websites – including having to use a single password or log-on to book a vacation, and not having to memorize several
passwords for different Internet sites and services, Tolliver said.

“How many of you have a sheet of paper sitting at home with all your passwords to all the sites that you use?” he asked.

“At my house, I can trace the history of my family pets over time – you enter a password, and say: ‘Yeah, I remember that dog. He was a nice dog.”

Microsoft has already developed its own identity verification initiative for its own sites called Passport, but it’s not clear when or whether inter-operability between the Passport and the Liberty Alliance standard will become a reality.