Steve McCown | Steering Committee Member
Decentralized Identity Foundation
Steven McCown, Chief Architect at Anonyome Labs, conducts R&D for decentralized identity, reusable credentials, secure messaging, and other cryptographic solutions. He serves in leadership roles at the Decentralized Identity Foundation, Trust Over IP, and is a Commissioner on the Utah Privacy Commission. His career is dedicated to creating innovative technologies. In 2008, McCown cofounded RFinity to provide contactless payments to BYU-Idaho students and enable phone-based ‘tap to pay’ at checkout. At the Idaho National Laboratory (U.S. Dept. of Energy), he researched phone vulnerabilities and invented a way for cellphones to detect ionizing radiation (from ‘dirty bombs’) and alert first responders. As a U.S. Air Force officer, he led virtual reality research and built analysis systems for AWACS aircraZ. McCown holds B.S. & M.S. degrees in Computer Science (BYU), Certified Information Security Manager & Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer certifications, and 34 patents.
Appearances:
Day 2 @ 11:00
Digital identity: It may be secure, but will it protect your privacy?
Modern identity systems authenticate users with advanced identity, encryption, and communication technologies. Despite these advancements, how do digital identity solutions affect their users’ personal privacy?
Traditional IAM protects users within closed ecosystems. Federated architectures extend centralized identity to external relying parties, but often with a ‘phone home’ verification mechanism that can be used to track users. Decentralized Identity helps platform providers overcome these problems through peer-to-peer identifiers and verification methods that don’t require issuer participation whenever users present their digital identities.
This presentation will:
- Illustrate the privacy impacts of ‘phone home’ architectures and tools
- Explore Decentralized Identity’s privacy improvements
- Describe how recent legislation from the US State of Utah is creating a new model for privacy-oriented digital identity in government information systems.
GET INVOLVED AT IDENTITY WEEK AMERICA
Created by
Terrapinn is proud to be a member of isla.
Working together to build sustainable events