Secure Identity Alliance (SIA) Announces Global Availability of the Open Standards Identity API (OSIA)

Pioneering industry-first open standards initiative assures interoperability for sovereign ID programs and eliminates vendor lock-in

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Secure Identity Alliance

Jun 17, 2019, 03:00 ET

PARIS and JOHANNESBURG, June 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Secure Identity Alliance (SIA), the global identity and secure digital services advisory body, today announces the general availability of the Open Standards Identity API (OSIA) at ID4Africa.

Supported by all major global identity providers, OSIA directly addresses the high-cost problems of proprietary technology and the lack of standardization within government identity systems.

In short, this ground-breaking initiative eliminates vendor lock-in and enables multiple identity registries and systems to 'talk' to one another—independent of technology, solution architecture or vendor.

With these open standards in place, governments will be able to initiate robust identification platforms for their citizens, preserve the value of existing systems, and evolve their environments without fear of supplier or technology dependency.

Developed by the not-for-profit Secure Identity Alliance, with the full support of its members, OSIA provides the standardized data formats and open interfaces needed to address the interoperability challenges that have hampered the evolution of national ID systems in the past.

The OSIA functional and technical specifications are freely available on the GitHub collaboration platform.

Frédéric Trojani, Chairman of the Board, Security Identity Alliance, said: "The decision to create a pioneering new open-standards environment was initiated in direct response to delegate feedback captured at last year's ID4Africa event – where the issue of vendor lock-in was identified as a major roadblock hindering the progress of African identity projects. The Secure Identity Alliance, supported by the world's leading identity providers, listened and responded.

"Over the past 12 months, the SIA has led the development of the OSIA initiative— which at last gives governments full control over their sovereign identity systems. We're delighted that at this year's ID4Africa Annual Meeting we're able to unveil a comprehensive and fully available solution to this problem."

Injecting new levels of flexibility and interoperability, the OSIA Initiative enables governments to freely evolve, adapt and add to their sovereign ID systems, choosing the most appropriate solutions and partners for their needs without the risk of disruption, operational failure or unnecessary cost.

The OSIA Initiative will be presented on Thursday 20^th June to delegates attending the plenary session 1.1. PS4: DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS from 8.30 – 10.30.

Subsession: Putting government back in control: how the pioneering SIA Open Standards Identity API (OSIA) Initiative eliminates lock-in and assures interoperability for sovereign identity programs today.

Debora Comparin, Chair of the OSIA Workgroup, will be presenting the session.

She commented: "The OSIA initiative represents a new era of openness and collaboration between the world's largest identity providers to resolve the interoperability and data sharing challenges that previously left governments with limited options, should they need to evolve their ID ecosystems.

"The industry's open standards vision means governments are now free to use any technology they choose and can take advantage of innovative and emerging technologies as they see fit – confident that there will be no need to discard existing legacy ID investments."

Delegates attending ID4Africa 2019 can meet with SIA representatives at Booth A03 to discover more information on the OSIA Initiative and attend the OSIA Information Meeting in Function Room Julia from 1100 to 1200 on 20^th June.

Note to Editors:

About the Secure Identity Alliance

Secure Identity Alliance is dedicated to supporting the provision of legal, trusted identity for all, and to drive the development of inclusive digital services necessary for sustainable, worldwide economic growth and prosperity.

We believe legal, trusted identity is the cornerstone of rights protection, social inclusion and digital economic development - and the access point to a wide range of essential public and private services.

We bring together public, private and non-government organizations to foster international collaboration on the issues of legal identity, to help shaping policy and to provide technical and implementation guidance for national and international ID systems.

Its Board Members are De La Rue, Gemalto – a Thales Company, Idemia, IN Groupe and Veridos.

For more information on the Secure Identity Alliance, visit: www.secureidentityalliance.org.

Follow the Secure Identity Alliance at @secureidentity1

SOURCE Secure Identity Alliance