10 Councils attempt to share information about citizens
Ten councils are going to share and access each other’s confidential information using Microsoft Windows CardSpace information cards.
By using their online Ids they will be able to share internal documents.
The ten councils involved are:
Kent County Council, London Borough of Bromley, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council the Isle of Man, London Borough of Lewisham, Metropolitan Borough Council, Sunderland City Council, Derby City Council, Warwick District Council and Rotherham London Borough of Newham.
The authentication process of the cardspace cards takes place in a secure internal (local) environment so the users are not likely to be victimised by phishing attacks that are more commonly seen on the Internet. Phishing is when an unauthorised entity attempts to get your credentials by pretending to be a site you trust.
Geoff Connell, London Borough of Newham and Chairman of the Shared Learning Group, comments:
To our knowledge, this is the world’s first information card implementation in the public sector. However, recent security breaches have highlighted the need to enhance IT security in governmental organisations. Using information cards makes it easier for the group to share information in a secure manner. In addition to extra security, Eduserv’s technology saves us valuable time and administrative resources.
