Previous page:Technology challenges of a federated identity approach
Portageur pilot
At the federal level, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has been running an identity management pilot with cross-jurisdictional objectives for the past year. Called Portageur, the authentication method runs in conjunction with ePass, which is part of the suite of services offered by Public Works and Government Services Canada's (PWGSC) Secure Channel authentication process, says George Arsenijevic, deputy assistant commissioner at the CRA.
The ePass is a common shared service for the Government of Canada that many departments use, he explains.
"The ePass enables user credential management, and it's basically a digital credential that allows citizens to gain access to a department's online services. The ePass, in and of itself, does not provide access to a department's online services, but has to be mapped to a government program, following an identity proving process," Arsenijevic says.
Many government departments require an ePass to log on to their secure Web sites, but the amount of personal information citizens need to provide to obtain it varies from one to another, says Arsenijevic.
The CRA has a set of stringent identity authentication requirements to grant an ePass.
"The way we have it set up (is that) citizens must identify themselves with the CRA by providing personal information (social insurance number, date of birth, total income reported on a recent tax return and postal code), register for an ePass, and enter the security code that is mailed to them. After this initial registration process, future access is gained via a user ID and password. Other departments may follow a different process," explains the CRA exec.
In the Portageur pilot, agencies that lack the technical infrastructure or the identity information to do their own online authentication can use a new add-on process developed by the CRA, he says. "Agencies won't have to build their own infrastructure if they accept our authentication process, on the premise that if it's good enough for the CRA, then it's good for us."
One such department is Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), which has partnered with the CRA in this initial pilot.
"Typically, a soldier who worked for the DND goes to VA (Veterans Affairs) for services - but VA doesn't have identity information about him."
Instead of building its own database, VAC can go to the CRA to vouch for the person's identity with the citizen's consent. Veterans who already have an e-pass with the CRA can make a request to broker authentication to VAC.
As in BC's virtual card pilot, the citizen controls his personal information in the CRA-VAC brokering process, says Arsenijevic.
"We send encrypted information to the individual in an information packet called the personal statement of identity, which is date-stamped and can't be altered.
"Once received, it's up to the citizen to decide whether he'll send the information to VA. We're not violating privacy laws because we don't pass information directly to VA," he says.
CRA advantage
The CRA has more contact with Canadians than any other federal agency, and has the most up-to-date database of personal information and advanced infrastructure, Arsenijevic says.
Other agencies that don't have this capability can avoid the expense of building their own.
"Portageur is an inexpensive service, and doesn't require large investments by the GoC," he says.
Citizens often need to be set up and authenticated to many departments, but they prefer one process, he says.
The CRA has proposed extending the service to other agencies through more pilots that could be run under the auspices of the IATF, says Arsenijevic.
About 8,500 VAC clients have used the Portageur service, and no issues have emerged thus far, he says.
"If we were doing this with 40 partners, we might need different architecture at the CRA but there are no problems now. We're looking forward to offering the service to other pilot partners."
(Rosie Lombardi is a Toronto-based freelance journalist. She can be reached atrosie@rosie-lombardi.com)
Related content:
Understanding federated identity
Province of B.C. readies federated identity model
icon.
