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| DID Alliance Korea Chairman Kim Yeong-rin Courtesy of DID Alliance Korea |
DID Alliance Korea seeks to lead global self-sovereign identity industry
By Lee Kyung-min
The Decentralized Identity (DID) Alliance Korea, an open industry association created to develop a standardized, interoperable framework for decentralized identity services, will seek to become a global leader in the budding industry with much growth potential, the alliance head said Monday.
A fully operational DID system would mean a Korean national, for example, could pass through immigration services in the U.S. via DID and use financial services there without any difficulty.
This would be possible as the person's personal information including passport number and bank and credit records would be stored in the DID system, ready to be reviewed for clearance by the immigration and financial authorities there.
The organization's continued effort, the head said, will enable Korea to have a greater say in setting global DID standards, facilitating the global expansion of not only local companies but also domestic technologies.
"It's similar to how Korea's Taekwondo became a full medal Olympic sport," DID Alliance Korea Chairman Kim Yeong-rin said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
"The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had a Korean vice president and the country's martial art was adopted as an official Olympic sport. Korea needs to lead the global discussion on the decentralized ID fully backed by its competitive IT technologies, prompting other nations to follow our lead in the development and implementation of the necessary systems."
The vision comes amid the growing importance of "self-sovereign identity," an industry term referring to a new form of identification which, through a layer of technologies, enables individuals and organizations to assert their own identity.
This is different from existing identity certification processes which require the help of intermediaries including government-certified or public entities that manage personal data.
"Personal identities are currency," said the former head of Financial Security Institute (FSI) who also served a deputy governor at Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Kim also worked at the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The new way of characterizing what largely remain under the "care" of state-run, or financial services firms follows a series of data leaks at major such organizations over the past years.
Mass data leaks at card firms in 2013, for example, put the issue front and center, prompting calls for personal data to be managed and controlled by individuals, not centralized institutions known for their high vulnerability with little accountability.
The Seoul High Court upheld a lower court's ruling that fined KB Kookmin, NongHyup cards 15 million won ($12,000) each and Lotte Card 10 million won, March 3. The Supreme Court is reviewing the case.
The ruling came about five years after the three firms were indicted for failing to supervise workers who handed over to an outside IT contract worker a combined 100 million unencrypted user data. Some of them sold the data to loan sharks.
"Crimes like this will no longer be possible if DID services are implemented."
Escalating the calls are global moves seeking to strengthen protection of personal data and to recognize them as personal assets, grounds to bolstering individual autonomy of what is rightly the bearers.
"A decentralized ID increases transparency management efficiency of data," Kim said.
Also to be helped by the DID initiative are about 13 percent of the global population currently without an identity.
According to 2018 World Bank Group data, an estimated one billion people around the globe face challenges in proving who they are.
"They are denied basic services such as finance and mobile connections, not to mention the high and untraceable risk of them falling victim to human trafficking. A global implementation of the DID will help solve the human rights crisis around the world."
The DID Alliance Korea is a Seoul office of the DID Alliance, a global foundation set up by IT firm Raon Secure CEO Lee Soon-hyung and Ramesh Kesanupalli in San Francisco, U.S., in 2019.
The DID Alliance has 62 members including Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute (KFTC), LG CNS, NH NongHyup Bank, Samsung SDS, Samsung Card, Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank.
Kesanupalli is the founder of the Fast IDentity Online (FIDO), an open industry association launched in February 2013 to develop and promote authentication standards that help reduce the world's over-reliance on passwords.
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| DID Alliance Korea Chairman Kim Yeong-rin Courtesy of DID Alliance Korea |
Business model viability
The organization is set to make a test case of the firm's marketability in July, five months after the successful operation of OmniOne Network, a blockchain-based intranet needed to make the DID service function.
At the Seoul headquarters of Raon Secure, where OmniOne Network was showcased, Feb. 6, Kim said the main version of the network will be launched in July, following trial operation reviews with participating firms.
"Based on our Global Association for Digital Identity (GADI) initiative, we will connect human identity with digital identity. This will not only help solve data breach issues but also give an ID to those yet to have one around the world."
The confidence stems due in a large part from a number of test-proven cases that brightens the organization's business operability.
Its DID system was implemented by the Military Manpower Administration (MMA) and KFTC, a success much lauded for removing administrative inefficiency and bolstering user convenience.
One of two key technologies in place to help efficient operation was those developed by FIDO Alliance, and the other was OmniOne Network whose blockchain-based functions not only improved the system credibility but also fundamentally removed the possibility of dispute over record alterations or any other claimed failures of draft notice delivery.
The key characteristics of blockchain-based system are resistance to data modification, meaning data recorded on "the digital ledger" cannot be easily altered retroactively, which helps ensure accountability.
The number of the DID system users on the MMA website topped 8,500 over the past month, a notable feat given the official launch was only in late January. The service was used over 52,000 times.
The number is expected to soar, given the over 1.65 million could-be drafted manpower are highly likely to choose online services over time-consuming in-person visits to local district offices and MMA offices.
"We identified problems and set up a system with a solution function applied. Our efforts were well received by the users and this helps us stay motivated to be better at what we do and be more efficient," Kim said.
