White Paper on Identity Management Requirements, Issues, and Directions for Mobile Industry

Identity Management (IDM) has become important with the rise in the requirement of management of multiple-person identity in places that can be as varied as government and public security entities; financial institutions, service and content providers; operators of mobile and fixed networks. This paper refers to an IDM Project that was undertaken with the GSM Association to develop common guidelines that can work within a defined Identity Management Framework. The idea was to help address issues related to management of mobile subscriber/user identities. This would help operators undertake IDM with emerging mobile applications such as single sign-on web browsing, mobile payments, and other UICC-enabled applications. Along with the UICC, mobile network infrastructure is able to support the subscriber/user authentication. Apart from offering better management, these solutions are able to enhance user experience because they are able to provide potential benefits in terms of improved subscriber satisfaction and reduced churns. This paper delves on the role of the UICC in the mobile operator IDM framework. The framework defined by this GSMA IDM association has been suggested such that it is able to keep pace with innovative mobile services and applications. This way the framework is able to adapt to applicable open standards and best practices. It is essential to meet emerging requirements and concerns of users and the mobile network community.