Understanding Windows CardSpace

Organizations can use Windows CardSpace to guard against identity theft and to work through a wide range of security and privacy problems. This book offers an insider's view of CardSpace and of identity management in general, written for engineers, security specialists and business decision-makers who plan or build these systems.

The authors bring experience gained from working with the CardSpace product team and from deploying CardSpace-based systems at major enterprises. They follow the subject from initial planning and design through to deployment. The opening section introduces the core ideas of user-centered identity management, the setting in which CardSpace operates, and the problems it was built to address, including profitable digital crime, the fragmented state of cryptography, and the clutter of web user interfaces. It also covers the idea of a world without a central authority, the seven laws of identity, and the identity metasystem.

The middle section examines CardSpace from a technical standpoint, covering its technologies, components, artifacts, operations, development practices and usage scenarios. The final section considers the design and business questions involved in building solutions on CardSpace or on any other user-centered identity management system.