Background on Authentication

What is Authentication?

The rewards of Electronic Service Delivery implementation hold great promise, not only in terms of service delivery improvement through increased accessibility, both in hours of operations and better service connections with remote regions, but also the possibility of significant cost reduction as well.

However once the services provided go beyond being informational to being transactional, especially with personal information being contained within those transactions, it is imperative that the government have assurance that those clients accessing services remotely over the internet are who they say they are.

In the world of online Identification, Authentication and Authorization this means :

• Creating and issuing a persistent verified electronic identity (based on assessment of evidence that has been presented to support the claimed identity)
• Establishes at the start of each online session the validity of that identity where appropriate- based on assurance level
• Grant or deny access to online information or services based on the transaction or program specific business rules of the online service

Authentication is an enabler for integrated, cross-jurisdictional service delivery through multiple channels that is customer-focused, seamless and convenient.

Attention to ID authentication issues is required to realize the significant dividends in terms of designing a system that delivers services to the right individual while earning the trust of the clients who use the system.

Why is Authentication important?

Authenticating individuals and businesses to receive government services through trusted registration “over the counter “ has long been a core business of government.

Now governments across Canada face a number of complex challenges in supporting primary or core businesses of government while promoting service delivery transformation through the use of new technologies.

There are a number of drivers that would suggest the need to collaborate and cooperate on an inter-jurisdictional basis. Collaborating on standards for authentication will be needed to respond to these drivers and leverage the shift to customer-centred service delivery, which focuses on improving government and creating a more efficient means to deliver services.

Electronic service delivery requires some rethinking of traditional approaches to ID authentication and authorization (IA&A). For example, demand for seamless service from all levels of government has created an urgent need to find ways to recognize and accept electronic credentials across jurisdictions and so leverage the various registration and authentication infrastructures that already exist.

As we move to integrating services across program lines and towards electronic delivery of government services, the issue of authenticating people and businesses for multiple programs electronically will require increasing attention and become a critical challenge to the future of seamless electronic service delivery.