Many people have asked me what I work on at Microsoft and it’s always been difficult for me to explain what I do because the project I’m working on hasn’t been released yet. There’s been some keynotes where my project was mentioned, but today was the first time a demo was shown during the RSA Conference 2006.
The project I work on is currently called Microsoft InfoCard. It’s a meta-identity system which is a layer that talks between the user and the authentication system. Imagine having all a digital wallet in your computer. All your authentication in one place. You have a card to log into eBay, Amazon, amd Yahoo. For purchases, you have digital versions of your credit card to submit to vendors. That’s the user end of it. What InfoCard will do is verify the card you’re submitting. For example, if you’re submitting a VISA credit card, it’ll connect to VISA’s server, verify the card is indeed legit. VISA will then create a token, which you’ll pass onto the vendor and the vendor can verify the token was from the VISA server. I still can’t say much more about it (or more like I’m afraid of saying something that I was suppose to), but you can read about it here:
- Microsoft InfoCard
- InfoCard on the way from Microsoft
- Microsoft pushes InfoCard for secure online ID
- Bill Gates presents a new software security program
- Microsoft InfoCard’s first backer: VeriSign
- Microsoft Shows Off Tool for Identification Management
- Gates outlines computer security efforts
- Microsoft unveils new security program for online transactions
- Gates Outlines ID Management for Vista, XP
- Microsoft unveils new security tool
- Gates outlines computer security efforts
- Microsoft plans virtual information wallet: Gates
- Gates touts security of next OS at S.J. event
- Gates: End to passwords in sight
- Ending Microsoft’s identity crisis
- Gates unveils virtual information wallet
You can watch the Bill Gates Keynote at the RSA Conference 2006 at Bill Gates Webcasts. The InfoCard demo starts at 37:17.