LiveSide - News blog : InfoCard

Live ID with CardSpace support announced as in beta

Chris — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:45:00 GMT

Yes the Information Card support in Live ID v5 we've been raving about has now been announced. To recap, CardSpace, and the Information Cards it manages, allows you to log into a website without entering your password, reducing the risk of both phishing attacks and keyloggers. Angus Logan gives a great walkthrough showing how to enable this Information Card support (I count 16 screenshots!) and includes a Channel9 video not yet posted on the main site.

Another key way to reduce phishing scams is by using certificates to verify the identity of websites, which as Bink spotted is why login.live.com now shows a green address bar for IE7 users (Firefox gives me a yellow address bar?). Unfortunately this only appears when using the Enhanced Signin option (https), though with all the wifi sniffing demoes going on in recent months this is something you should consider setting as default.

For those noticing the increase in Windows Live content coming out of Microsoft, Catherine Heller is the person responsible for organising all these Channel9 and On10 videos. On the topic of Live ID, there is a recent one that discusses the Web Authentication SDK. If you want to subscribe to all the Windows Live videos, here's the Channel9 feed and On10 also.

To wrap it all up, for those with multiple Live IDs who want to link them together, the response seems to be "Stay tuned :)" - that smiley face is Catherine's, not mine ;-)

Live ID sneaks in Info Card right under our noses

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:51:00 GMT

We've been telling you about Info Card for quite a while, but in all the excitement (and a few bugs to iron out) surrounding the new Live ID associations with LiveSide Community Server log in, it took us a minute to notice that Info Cards are live and working, and right here on LiveSide!

A note on the naming (hey it's Microsoft, you knew this was coming, right?): The current name for the cards seems to be "Information Card", formerly Info Card, and while we and others noticed a name change to "CardSpace", that seems to be the name of the Information Card manager.

Here's how to get started with Information Cards:

Start by clicking on the Windows Live ID "Sign In" at the top right of our home page (you may have to sign out first)

First you need to set up an Information Card. In the text above "Sign in with:...", click on "Information Card"
Then click on "Sign In":

3. Click on the Live ID you want to build an Information Card for, verify your password, and customize your Info Card:

4. For right now, the only personal information you can store is a name and a picture. That will change, however, as the help file shows:

5. Next, to sign in with the Information Card, choose it from the drop down box in your Live ID sign in:

And that's it! Not very useful yet, but fun!

We'll have more of course as the Information Cards become more functional, but for now, about the only place you can get one is on LiveSide! (and heck, we almost didn't notice ourselves!)

Update: Long tells me this isn't fully working for him (he can create a card (in Windows IE7), but can't sign in with it, so it may be US only (??)

Financial Analyst Meeting 2007: Windows Live Suite, Live ID, and Cloud Infrastructure

Harrison Hoffman — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 03:16:00 GMT

As you may or may not know, Microsoft's annual Financial Analyst Meeting wrapped up a few days ago. There were a few important points for Windows Live that were talked about, so let's jump right into that.

Windows Live Suite
Kevin Johnson, President of Microsoft's Services and Platforms Division announced that they will be releasing a Windows Live Suite. Basically, the Windows Live Suite is a collection of services and applications that are bundled together in one single download. For example, you may download the Suite and have the option to install all or just a few of the Windows Live applications like Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, and Writer. If this sounds familiar, that's because Google did that about a year and a half ago with Google Pack. The concept here though is that it will be an essential download for anyone who is setting up their new computer since a couple of the applications offer upgrades to existing Vista applications.

Windows Live Cloud Infrastructure
Also, last week Mary Jo Foley reported that Steve Ballmer has coined a new buzzword: Windows Live Cloud Infrastructure. Windows Live Cloud Infrastructure is essentially going to be the backend to Windows Live Core. So now that they are starting to talk about these things, maybe some more details will begin to emerge about the ever mysterious Windows Live Core.

Among the other things that were talked about was Live ID. They made a point to stress the importance of Live ID in the scheme of Windows Live, part of which is that Live ID allows for more targeted ads.

If you want some more information on the Financial Analyst Meeting, be sure to check out David Hunter's wrap-up.

CardSpace (InfoCard) and Live ID

Chris — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 03:41:00 GMT

Running Windows Vista? Noticed the Windows CardSpace applet in the Vista control panel but not sure what its for? That may soon change if Windows Live ID provides CardSpace integration.

Formerly called InfoCard, CardSpace integration with Windows Live was discussed back in March 2006 when Live ID was first emerging as the updated Microsoft Passport. To put it as simply as possible, CardSpace allows you to securely store multiple identies on your PC, and use them online when required. This eliminates the need to enter a password when you want to identify yourself to a web service - instead you choose the identity you wish to send from your PC. This helps protect the user from phishing scams and keyloggers, which for more important services like online banking, helps reduce the risk of identity theft.

So how would this work for Live ID? Testers of the in-beta Windows Live ID authentication services SDK (which allows users to log into 3rd party sites with their Live ID) are currently able to create a custom signin page on the Windows Live ID test servers. This login page presents the user with the existing option to sign in with a Live ID, or the alternative - to sign in using CardSpace.

After selecting the CardSpace option, users are prompted to login to Live ID with their password, after which they are able to select an identity from Windows CardSpace to link to their Live ID. Once confirmed, this CardSpace identity then becomes the login credential you need, replacing the password you used previously. Of couse if you wish to remove or change your CardSpace identity from your Live ID, you can do so using your password.

If you haven't yet started looking at the Windows Live ID authentication services SDK, this is yet another reason why you should do. Part 1 of Colin's tutorial on how to add Live ID to your website is already available. Our favourite CS developer Nick is already working on this so you might see CardSpace integration over here at some point :)

The web of lies that is InfoCard

Chris — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 23:12:00 GMT

When will people learn: InfoCard is not replacing Microsoft Passport . To quote Trevin : Today, Passport supports email address with either passwords or mobile PINs as credential types. Infocard will simply be another credential that will be supported...(read more)