Distributed Identity Assurance

Full Title or Meme

Identity Proofing has often been viewed as a centralized function of a Credential Service Provider (CSP), but it can be more efficiently be realized using existing Identity Proofing in many real-world locations.

Context

This concept of Distributed Identity Proofing is described here as a use case for attaining IAL2 identifier assurance in a Trustworthy Healthcare Ecosystem.

Goal

To allow online patient's of one provider to leverage existing Identity Proofing with other providers.

Actors

1. Actor: Patient of one healthcare provider seeking services at another (refereed) provider.
2. Actor: Patient's Phone as Health Care Credential
3. Actor: Verifier of claim with Identifier.
4. Actor: Existing provider of health care services.
5. Actor: Referred provider of health care services.

Note that it is possible that the patient's guardian (parent) is acting on the patient's behalf in this use case, but that should have no appreciable impact on the flow described here.

Preconditions

• The Patient has acquired a mobile phone for any major provider.
• The Patient has registered at a [primary] healthcare provider (PHP).
• The Patient has been (or will be) referred to another healthcare provider.

Scenarios

Primary Scenario:

1. Patient visits their PHP for an ordinary visit and receives a paper at the end of the visit with instructions for establishing a strong authentication credential on their mobile phone.
2. Patient uses their phone to acquire the native app specific to their device. (Today this would be the Apple or Android app store.)
3. Patient starts the app and picks a friendly name for a new medical identifier that will be assigned by the appropriate process.
4. Patient asks the app to "bind" the new identifier to the Identity Proofing claim that is also on the paper received from the PHP.
5. Typically the patient will use the phone's camera to "enter" the claim into the phone (keying in the claim is possible, but not enjoyable.)
6. Typically the CSP will download a certificate into the users phone

A different path using biometrics:

Failed Paths:

1. Patient has no tolerance for technology and ignores the instructions.

Results

Accepted Risks:

1. The patient loses the paper allowing some other person to attempt to steal their identity - mitigated by sign up process as described.

Post Condition:

1. If validation accepted by the CSP, the patient has a phone that can be used for sign in to any participating healthcare provider.

Examples:

Dependencies::

1. Web Sites must be trusted before any user information is released.
2. Trust federations can be used to help users make informed decisions.
3. User consent and trust must begin with no user information transferred.
4. Standards exist to collect needed attributes where-ever they may be.

Workflow

When patient goes to their phone there are several messages that need to be created.

Sign in process at another provider

This is described in other documentation.

References

• The Identity Proofing Use Case describes the existing, centralized Identity Proofing with a Registration Authority and Credential Service Provider.