Internet Security: What is real in the digital world?

The Safer Internet Day on February 8 reminds us all that it is crucial to live and work within a safe digital environment. But how safe is it today against the backdrop of IoT, Blockchain, Quantum Computers and the global pandemic? Cyber-attacks are only one of many possible threats. The crux of the challenge is that it can be difficult to know if something is authentic when online. Thus, strong identification and cryptography is needed. A new solution, using verifiable credentials, called verifiable LEI (vLEI) claims to be successful.

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Cybercrime cost the global economy an estimated $6 trillion in 2021. Todaytrust can no longer be established with a handshake or a paper-based signature. But, in the digital world, it can be difficult to know if something is authentic. Are you sure you are using your bank’s real website or if that email really came from your business partner? Technology innovations are redefining how organizations formally connect with one another. This can only be realized through a digitized system of business identity verification  that is used globally.

Greater transparency with the LEI and vLEI

Verifiable identity is the core competence of the G20 non-profit organization GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation). It manages the worldwide issuance of Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs). The LEI is a unique code for a legal entity, comparable to an international company ID card, which helps to create greater transparency in the global marketplace.

Where LEIs provide an organization with one unique identifier, recognizable in the real world, vLEIs make automatic recognition in the digital world possible. But how will it work? The vLEI system will interoperate seamlessly and securely with all technology models, including blockchain, cloud services and APIs, by adopting a ‘network of networks’ approach. To accomplish this, GLEIF will leverage the Key Event Receipt Infrastructure (KERI) protocol to develop the vLEI’s technical underpinnings.

Make the internet secure

Stephan Wolf, GLEIF CEO: “Digital identity has been a hot topic for us for many years. We ran a few proof-of-concepts with different blockchain technologies, and we finally decided to use verifiable credentials to build a verifiable LEI, the vLEI for short. When looking into the tool and library world we found that KERI is the tool that allows us to achieve exactly what we want.”

The creator of KERI, Dr Samuel Smith, explains: “We're still trying to figure out how to make the internet secure. And so, my main motivation was ‘I need to make the internet secure, and it needs to be open so that everybody can use it’. KERI is a decentralized, distributed infrastructure. It's a protocol that allows everybody to cryptographically verify the source of information. So, now we can trust who we're talking to over the internet.”

It´s about authenticity

Timothy Ruff (Digital Trust Ventures) on KERI: “KERI is a free, open, universal protocol that can be used to protect and verify digital things. It could be a passport, a license, a diploma, a photo, video, music, any kind of document, really, anything digital. It’s a way for the originator of something digital to protect it and make it verifiable so that anyone, anywhere can verify its source. Really, it’s about authenticity.”

KERI enables end-to-end Zero Trust Security, the gold standard of all cybersecurity, making identity systems such as the vLEI easier to secure and faster to scale. Together, KERI and the vLEI represent an important advancement for digital trust. Using the KERI protocol, vLEIs can be created and utilized independently of any specific company or organization, with the highest levels of security, privacy, and ease of use.

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• Film on KERI – Length 5:35 min
• Footage – Length 5:35 min
• Adobe Stock-Material – Length 0:40 sec
• Statements on Internet Security, KERI and vLEI by
• Stephan Wolf, CEO GLEIF
• DR Samuel Smith, Creator of KERI
• Timothy Ruff, Digital Trust Ventures
• Treatment KERI
• Info text
• Photos

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