Federated identity management in e-government: lessons learned and the path forward

Management of digital identity involves every company and institution, not only in the internet world. Among different identity management models, only the federated one is able to ensure a strong protection in terms of trust and privacy. In fact, the participants in the federation decide to trust each other about which information can be exchanged in the processes of authentication and authorisation, based on established policies to manage relationships of trust. According to this, it has been widely adopted during the last years. In particular, its adoption in Public Administration allows a proper organisation autonomy, supporting access to the services offered by the institution. This process is going to quickly raise with the progressive adoption of cloud computing by Public Administrations. In the paper, two projects accomplishing federated digital identity in Italian Public Administrations are presented. Starting from lessons learned, authors highlight a path forward for Public Administration toward federated digital identity in cloud computing scenario.