Identity Research Center Formed

A group of universities, law enforcement agencies, and technology vendors have formed a research consortium to study and combat identity fraud.

The Center for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP) is a collaborative formed to consolidate the independent efforts of organizations researching identity management, information sharing, and data protection. The goal is to come up with some definitive answers on the causes and prevention of identity theft and fraud.

CIMIP will be based at Utica College in New York, and partners such as IBM , LexisNexis, the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University, and Syracuse University. Gary Gordon, a professor at Utica, will head the center. CIMIP’s partners will work together to provide resources, gather subject matter experts, provide access to sensitive data, and produce results that will be acted upon. This includes putting into action in the form of best practices, new policies, regulations, and legislation, training opportunities, and proactive initiatives for solving the growing problems of identity fraud and theft, secure sharing of information, and information protection.

CIMIP will not only research the incidence of identity fraud, but will also make recommendations on ways to improve authentication technology, and it will possibly formulate opinions on legislation and regulation. Officials did not give a timetable for the group's research but said it will study identity fraud as it changes over the years, which suggests that the project will be long-term.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 10:22 AM  Permalink