Microsoft buys U-Prove technology

by Nancy Gohring

March 6, 2008 —

Microsoft hopes to beef
up online privacy with the acquisition of the U-Prove technology, the company
announced on Thursday.

U-Prove was developed by Stefan Brands at Credentica
as technology that allows Internet users to disclose only the minimum amount
of personal information when conducting electronic transactions as a way to
reduce the likelihood of privacy violations. U-Prove also employs cryptography
to prevent systems from pulling together information about users from various
sources.

Microsoft did not disclose a purchase price for the technology. Brands has
joined Microsoft's Identity and Access Group along with his colleagues from
Credentica, Greg Thompson and Christian Paquin.

Microsoft plans to integrate U-Prove into Windows Communication Foundation
and CardSpace. WCF is built on the .Net framework and allows programmers to
build and run connected systems. CardSpace is also technology built on .Net
that developers use to build software and Web sites that are less susceptible
to common identity attacks like phishing. CardSpace is used in sites that support
shopping, banking and bill payment.

In a blog post, Brands
said that since he developed the U-Prove technology in the 1990s, he has
turned down many buyout offers and venture capital investment opportunities
because he thought the business model behind the technology wasn't strong enough.
However, the demand for this type of security technology has grown, he said.
In addition, Microsoft makes an ideal driver of the technology because it can
influence both the client and the server sides of applications, he said.

U-Prove may be particularly interesting in medical applications, military systems
and identity outsourcing, wrote
Kim Cameron, Microsoft's chief architect of identity and access, in a blog
post. U-Prove "is the equivalent in the privacy world of RSA in the security
space," he wrote.

IDG News Service