SAFE-BioPharma OKs Verizon Medical ID Cyber-Credentials As Compliant with U.S. Standards

FORT LEE, N.J. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- SAFE-BioPharma® has approved the Verizon entity providing high-assurance identity credentials to healthcare professionals as being compliant with U.S. government cyber-trust requirements. Verizon Universal Identity Services (UIS) is the first identity credential issuer to be approved by SAFE-BioPharma, which recently announced that the government has named it one of four recognized Trust Framework Providers (TFP).

Trust Framework Providers develop and maintain policies and practices used by identity credential issuers, such as Verizon. Government approval of a TFP means that identity credentials associated with that TFP can be trusted and used at known levels of assurance by U.S. federal agencies and others.

SAFE-BioPharma reviewed information submitted by Verizon UIS and determined it met all comparability requirements for identity proofing, credential issuance and credential management detailed in the U.S. government-approved SAFE-BioPharma Trust Framework Provider policy and practice documents.

Verizon UIS was approved at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Assurance Levels 2 and 3, the latter of which satisfies the identity-proofing and credential issuing practices acceptable for access to systems where risk of identity fraud is moderate, such as electronic prescribing of controlled substances.

NIST established Levels of Assurance (LOA) ranging from 1 to 4 to identify acceptable levels of trust for the use of electronic identity credentials in different settings. Each level of identity trust is determined by the process used to establish the identity of the credential’s user. LOA 3 is required for most transactions in regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals and healthcare. LOA 2 is adequate for lower risk electronic exchanges (e.g., involving personally-identifiable information or minimal amounts of money).

SAFE-BioPharma supports issuance of both Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and non-PKI identity credentials.

Identity Credential Issuers interested in working with the SAFE-BioPharma TFP should contact Dr. Peter Alterman, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer, at palterman@safe-biopharma.org.

SAFE-BioPharma

For more information on the SAFE-BioPharma standard for digital identity and digital signatures used in life science and healthcare settings, visit http://www.safe-biopharma.org.

SAFE-BioPharma® is a trademark of SAFE-BioPharma Association. Any use of this trademark requires approval from SAFE-BioPharma Association.