Bayshore Comment: We believe this is a step in the right direction.  But implementation and execution of the U.S. government plan will be very challenging as this is voluntary and involves many parties (public and private).  For mission critical enterprises, a comprehensive identity management system,with fully integrated authentication and authorization, is still the only way to secure digital assets and  identities.

Excerpt from FT:

Financial Times 6-26-10

US outlines online security strategy

By Joseph Menn in San Francisco

Published: June 26 2010 00:39 | Last updated: June 26 2010 00:39

The White House set out a sweeping strategy to make online transactions more secure on Friday. The move is the most ambitious initiative to emerge from a cybersecurity policy intended to blunt the growing menace of online crime.

Howard Schmidt, president Barack Obama’s cybersecurity co-ordinator, who took up his duties in early 2010, released the strategy paper after 12 months of discussions led by the National Security Council and involving scores of private sector groups, critical infrastructure owners and privacy advocates.

The strategy seeks the creation of a system for identity management that would allow citizens to use additional authentication techniques, such as physical tokens or modules on mobile phones, to verify who they are before buying things online or accessing such sensitive information as health or banking records………
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Link to Govt’s plan:

http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/ns_tic.pdf