Steve Wozniak and Professor Brian Cox bring industry and academia together to find a solution at Identity First 2021
Twenty years ago, we were at the dawn of the first digital century, filled with ambition and optimism about how technology and connectivity was going to change our lives for the better. Fast forward to 2020 and we find ourselves in a world rife with online fraud and scams, with consumers falling foul of social engineering techniques and deep fakes taking over people’s lives and identities.
We have reached a point where so much of our lives are online, knowing who it is we are interacting with in the digital world has become a profound point. Currently we can no longer trust that people are who they say they are online, our own digital identities are broken, and digital trust is at crisis point.
That’s a state of affairs that stands hugely at odds with the increasingly important role that digital trust – and by extension, digital identity – is already playing in society, industry, and academia. Each of those fields has a role to play in solving what is a global problem. To do so effectively, they need to break out of their silos and act together.
And it’s vital that they do so, because if digital identity is the foundation, then digital trust is the cornerstone. Without significant advances in privacy, fraud prevention and user experience, that trust is slow in coming.
A forum for change
To explore this challenge, Callsign has invited the world’s leading academics, and industry thought leaders to debate how getting the fundamentals of identification, and therefore digital trust right, can help us build a better and more equitable future.
The online event IF (Identity First) 2021 featuring keynotes from Professor Brian Cox CBE FRS and Steve Wozniak, is a platform for thinkers from both academia and Industry to examine the challenges of digital identity, and the solutions that will help build digital trust. Identity First is live and free to attend – register here to secure your place.
The event aims to be a starting point to begin having meaningful conversations that cross the boundaries of academia, industry and influencing bodies.
Digital trust for a digital future
Digital trust must be fixed to protect individuals and economies, as well as society and life. Overcoming what appears to be an insurmountable problem will take a collaborative effort and one which straddles more than the technology industry itself.
Addressing the challenges together – Professor Sir Brian Cox (TV presenter and Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Manchester), will join us to look at how academia and industry can collaborate to better understand and solve the challenges of building digital identities and therefore digital trust.
Solving in a user centric way – Steve Wozniak (Co-founder of Apple, philanthropist and inventor of multiple patents in the space of electronics) will offer a keynote that delves into how we can ensure that throughout it all, we keep customers and citizens at the centre.
IF (Identity First) will kickstart ongoing debates and discussions that will help us find the answers to the identity crisis. Actions, as we know, speak louder than words, and the actions that derive from these discussions in the months and years ahead are going to be pivotal.
It’s more than merely shoring up the foundations of digital identity; Our future as a society is going to hinge on digital trust. Equity, security and fairness for all are the real matters at stake, and it's high time that we put a stake in the ground in bringing those about.
