Last week, Microsoft struck a blow for consumer confidence in its PHR technology suite, Health Vault, by bringing on VeriSign as a security provider. HealthVault users are now able to log in to their PHR with VeriSign's OpenID. Built around VeriSign's Identity Protection (VIP) Network, consumers who sign up for its OpenID will be able to use it for various services, including Bay, PayPal and AOL. When users log into HealthVault records using the OpenID secured with VIP, they'll need to enter not only their OpenID user name and password, but also a one-time-password generated by their VIP credential.
While your editor isn't qualified to judge just how secure this approach is relative to other methods of accessing PHRs, I'd argue that bringing on VeriSign is a smart marketing move for Microsoft. After all, given its broad presence in e-commerce, VeriSign is one of the few--if only--brands consumers might name if you asked them which security vendors they recognize. And such recognition should work in Microsoft's favor as the battle of the PHR technologies continues to progress. After all, PHRs are one of the few medical technologies where consumer acceptance is more important than that of IT managers.
To learn more about the deal:
- read this VeriSign press release
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