A Borrowed Digital Identity
From SecurityForest
A long and blurred way, dimmed lights, white and blackness, and yet there is a direction.
Complex digital stripping; the cost of any error is great, and any solution is only known at the end.
Maybe the path is right, because experts support it, and maybe it is just another path leading into dark alleys. Nevertheless, it is a path and it features a variety of footpaths. And at the end of every path, there is always a new beginning.
Until a hundred years ago, we would march along one path, or two at most, over the years and throughout life.
A person was a name, a family, a face and a body.
Career development was a lifelong journey, and as such, often defined the person's last name, which he bequeathed to his sons,and son's sons.
In the present century, it is easy to change one's religion, nationality, citizenship, family status, opinions, languages, face, expression, eye color, and almost anything else making up one's identity.
We can create a new identity in an instant.
It is almost like launching a new product and marketing it as we see fit.
Making use of symbols, clothing and words, we can change ourselves from a product fashioned by our parents and environment into a product we ourselves have developed.
Attainment of our own identity is not an easy task, and the ways of seeking it vary primarily with the environment and norms
dictated by society; and norms, as we all know, vary from one society to another.
A person's primary identity is that of gender and profession, but in the modern era, these are not rigid, but instead are subject to change.
On the one hand, there is society's openness to those who are different, and on the other, the need inside us that urges us to be different.
Changing family role, occupation and religion is even easier than in the past, and we may even hold in greater esteem those who have changed a large number of roles in the game of life.
Someone we know to be a writer, actor, philosopher, a knowledgeable and conversant person as well as a skilled racing driver will be regarded as much more successful and interesting than someone who is only a good writer or only a good philosopher.
In contrast, in the not too distant past, a person who stuck to his profession over many years, would have received the same
recognition as a worldly person.
What about our digital identity which is perhaps even easier to change, and adaptable to our wants by the hour, minute, or possibly even the very second we go onto the Internet.
By running words across a flat screen, we can become boring or exciting, and if keying in words representing symbols and conveying feelings is not enough, what about digital photo-editing of a picture of an imaginary identity.
A digital identity is the easiest identity to impersonate.
If that is so, not only is digital identity an exciting issue, and its ramifications in terms of data security far more complex, but what about digital ID certificates.
Not long ago, the first digital certification authority in Israel was announced, opening up a mystery door to us to a world of almost imaginary possibilities.
Or perhaps an identity transformed into a complex numeric algorithm invented by a very brilliant person.
No longer religion, race or gender, no longer words, symbols, or eyes staring at you. Possibly the day will come when our identity will be subject to the next Star Trek game, and to an unlimited number of formulas that will distinguish flawlessly between one person and the next.
A secure digital identity approved according to the law of the State of Israel resolves extensive data security problems on the one hand, and at the same time, also indirectly solves the problem whereby the office was flooded with paperwork and we were obliged to keep original documents in large paper stores in order to preserve their legal validity if an occasion needed them.
We should not forget that digital ID certificates are an impressive secure technological solution in the present day era, but the biggest security problem is the human factor.
How long will it take at the managerial level - not the technological level - to cancel an ID certificate that was stolen or lost, and what of the implications if an ID certificate is lost, considering that possible actions over the Internet
such as secure payment transactions), include keying in of a password and loading of the smart card into the computer reader.
The human factor will, it would seem, continue to constitute the security flaw until we change our digital consumer culture,
and possibly until we combine small errors into big conclusions.
In the meantime, perhaps we should be satisfied with our lot in respect of the next small step into the new world of burgeoning technological/human convergence, such as a new group identity that we ourselves are building for ourselves.
Until possibly it too changes from a marvel technology into a giant machine controlling us as depicted in science-fiction movies.
The book "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov stipulates the three laws of robotics:
1. No robot will harm a human, nor will it allow by its inaction the harming of any human.
2. A robot will obey all the commands given it by a human, provided it does not contradict the first law.
3. A robot will preserve its existence and completeness provided this does not conflict with the second law or the first law.
What laws determine the protection of our identity in any event of system disruptions, or use of a borrowed digital identity?
