Lessons learned from Federated Identity Management experience in e-Government

Nowadays the management of digital identity involves every company and institution, not only in the Internet world. Among different models of identity management, the federated model (FIdM) is the only one able to ensure a strong protection in terms of trust and privacy. Organizations joining the federation can decide to trust each other about which information can be exchanged in the process of authentication and authorization, according to policies agreed upon trust relationship management. This process is going to quickly raise in the immediate future with the adoption of cloud computing by Public Administration (PA). In Europe, FIdM presents a heterogeneous scenario: not every country has already decided to adopt a federated approach, depending on political choices and local governments relations. With reference to cloud scenario in PA, we believe that is critical to strive the development of Cloud Identity as a Service model.