Who is the Better Identity Coalition?

The Better Identity Coalition has issued two reports aimed at guiding state and federal lawmakers in the United States. Who is guiding the hand of the BIC?

In December 2022, the Better Identity Coalition released a set of policy recommendations for all 50 U.S. state government officials focused on “ways governments can improve the privacy and security of digital identity solutions”. The report, Better Identity in America: A Blueprint for State Policymakers, outlines the BIC’s vision of how government officials should respond to the push for digital identity by groups like the BIC and its partners.

The report calls on state officials to “overcome fear, uncertainty and doubt” regarding “ID innovations” which “get the most residents in digital ID programs”. The BIC cites mobile driver’s license programs as one such innovation which is helping fuel the push towards digital identity. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators defines mobile driver’s licenses as “a driver’s license that is provisioned to a mobile device with the capability to be updated in real time” and believes they are the “future of licensing and proof of identity”.

Interestingly, the report also proposes that state governors and legislatures order state Motor Vehicle Departments to issue these mobile driver’s licenses, as well as offer “identity validation services alongside vital records bureaus that issue birth certificates and other government documents”.

When it comes to controversial identity technology like facial recognition, the report does not support an outright ban, but instead calls for the industry to “follow National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidance on digital identity that are already required for federal agencies”.

The BIC report also calls on government officials to “ensure that programs created to support marginalized populations get the same attention as the driver’s license effort”.

The recommendation may seem a bit out of place unless one understands that the digital ID salesmen are focused on bridging the “digital divide” by bringing marginalized populations into the digital ID trap. The only way the Technocratic State can work is if they are able to register the entire population with the digital systems. In fact, the report states plainly that “every step that gets a state closer to 100 percent participation with digital IDs is important”.

Critics of digital identity need only look to India and the Aadhaar to see how destructive it has been since its implementation.

“Seeking to build an identification system of unprecedented scope, India is scanning the fingerprints, eyes and faces of its 1.3 billion residents and connecting the data to everything from welfare benefits to mobile phones”, The New York Times wrote in 2018. The concerns relating to privacy and individual liberty have only increased in four years since that report. On January 13th of this year, Reuters released a report titled “India lets banks use face recognition, iris scan for some transactions – sources“.

The fact is that the digital identity schemes being promoted by the Better Identity Coalition will lead to less privacy and less liberty. Is it any wonder that Bill Gates supports this system under the guise of helping the poor and disenfranchised?

How to Opt-Out of the Technocratic State: 2nd Edition

by Derrick Broze

Who is the Better Identity Coalition?

The Better Identity Coalition claims they are “committed to working alongside policymakers to improve digital security, privacy and convenience for everyone”. To this end, they bring together “leading companies to promote education and collaboration on protecting identities online”.

In July 2018, the BIC released their first report, a set of policy recommendations aimed at federal lawmakers. The report, Better Identity in America: A Blueprint for Policymakers, was very similar in style and scope as the December 2022 report for state lawmakers.

The BIC itself is made up of more than 25 companies, including CVS, Discover, Equifax, JP Morgan Chase & Co, MasterCard, Facetec, ID.me, Microsoft, and Wells Fargo. Many of these same companies are partners or contributors to the World Economic Forum, another organization focused on promoting the alleged benefits of digital identity.

On January 24 and 25, the BIC partnered with the FIDO Alliance, and the ID Theft Resource Center (ITRC) to host a two-day “virtual policy forum” focused on “Identity, Authentication, and the Road Ahead”. The forum brought together “leaders from government, industry, and non-profits“, including members of Congress, the U.S. Senate, officials from the TSA, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and the Open ID Foundation.

The Better Identity Coalition was first launched in early 2018 as an initiative of the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law, a nonprofit which claims to be “dedicated to working with policymakers to advance cybersecurity initiatives”.

Who is the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law?

The Center for Cybersecurity Policy & Law describes itself as an “independent organization dedicated to enhancing cybersecurity worldwide by providing government, private industry, and civil society with practices and policies to better manage security threats”. The Center says it “combines policy expertise with convening power to bring industry leaders together with policymakers, form coalitions, and launch initiatives that produce real-world outcomes”.

To this end, the Center for Cybersecurity Policy & Law issues reports and hosts gatherings through its arm, the Better Identity Coalition, as one part of a larger effort to “enhance cybersecurity”. While it’s not perfectly clear what the Center does beyond organizing virtual gatherings and releasing reports, a look at their membership reveals a bit more about who they are.

Let’s start with Ari Schwartz, the Coordinator for the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law. Schwartz serves in several positions, including as Venable LLP’s Managing Director of Cybersecurity Services and Policy. He has also apparently assisted organizations in “developing risk management strategies, including implementing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, to help minimize risk”.

Mr. Schwartz’s work with NIST is notable when considering that the Better Identity Coalition’s December 2022 report recommended that state policymakers follow NIST guidance on digital identity programs.

Another member of the Center for Cybersecurity Policy & Law worth mentioning is Sam Curry, a man who serves in several key positions in the cybersecurity sector. Curry is a Visiting Fellow at the National Security Institute and also sits on the board of Sequitur Labs and reportedly “advises a number of startups and scale ups”.

Most interesting, however, is Sam Curry’s role as the Chief Security Officer of Cybereason and the President of Cybereason Government Inc. Cybereason is a firm focused on selling technological cybersecurity solutions like antivirus and ransomware-protection software. The company offers a technological defense platform to companies and governments using artificial intelligence, and cloud computing via Amazon Web Services.

As journalist Whitney Webb reported in 2020, Cybereason is one of many tech companies which have become entangled with the Israeli intelligence network through the use of public-private partnerships with private companies involved in cybersecurity and similar fields. Cybereason’s board of directors and employee list is riddled with officials with formal training from Israeli intelligence. Cybereason’s CEO Lior Div has openly admitted that he views his work at Cybereason as a “continuation” of his service to Israel’s intelligence apparatus.

The presence of Sam Curry and his company’s connections to Israeli intelligence should raise alarm bells. The company is likely a cutout of Israeli intelligence and, through the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law, is at least part of the guiding force behind the Better Identity Coalition and its recommendations to state policymakers.

To gain a deeper understanding of who is guiding the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law we need to look its origins. The Center was first established in 2017 as a nonprofit within Venable LLP’s Cybersecurity Services group.

Who is Venable LLP?

Venable LLP is promoted as a law firm of “trusted advisors” who serve businesses, organizations, and individuals in “many of the most important aspects of their work”. Founded in 1900 by Richard Venable in Baltimore, Venable LLP now has 10 offices across the United States and 800 attorneys practicing in corporate law, complex litigation, labor and employment, intellectual property, cybersecurity and data privacy, advertising and marketing, entertainment and media, environmental law, bankruptcy and restructuring, and various government affairs.

The Venable website notes their team is made up of “former regulators, senior government staffers, state attorneys general, and members of Congress”. Indeed, a quick look at the publicly acknowledged members of Venable includes former senators and representatives, and federal judges.

The trail that leads from the Better Identity Coalition to the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law to Venable LLP is made up of cybersecurity spooks with connections to the national-security state, U.S. and Israeli intelligence, banks, and corporations. By understanding these relationships, readers might be able to better understand who is driving the false trend of digital-identity programs.

The fact is the masses are not calling for digital identity or digital wallets or facial recognition for convenience and entertainment. This push is being manufactured from the top down by organizations like the ones exposed here and others yet to be discovered.

Of course, there are many nameless, faceless think tanks and non-profits which the masses have never heard of. The Better Identity Coalition and Venable LLP are hardly the top of the Pyramid of Power. However, if the last few years have taught the public anything, it should be that organizations you have never heard of, filled with Technocrats you never voted for, are attempting to shape our world. We ought to pay attention and begin exiting from the digital slavery systems being built around us.

Source: The Last American Vagabond

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Derrick Broze, a staff writer for The Last American Vagabond, is a journalist, author, public speaker, and activist. He is the co-host of Free Thinker Radio on 90.1 Houston, as well as the founder of The Conscious Resistance Network & The Houston Free Thinkers.

https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/category/derrick-broze/

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