Digital Transformation of Identity: A Crisis Mechanism

The inability to perform identity management in an organization results in extreme harm to information and operational security – both individual and organization are harmed. We apply a highly-structured ontological systems approach to explore the implications of identity as it is embedded and used in operational and support infrastructures. The symptoms of a deep-seated insufficiency of identity (access denial, long-waits for adjudication, lost files) have fostered a naïve appreciation for managing a person’s individuality, distinguishable attributes, validity metrics, trustworthiness, privacy concerns, intentionality, character, and roles. A multidisciplinary definition of identity was developed and evaluated through a stimulus-response / response-stimulus (SR-RS) model. The model results suggest why interactions of one’s identity within different contexts present the single, most reliable opportunity for managing identity within a mereological paradigm. Specifically, enacting mechanisms of assertion and ascertainment through processes and directives illustrates why both extensional and intensional logics are necessary for a proper mix of digital and analog mechanisms. Certain digital transformations within the SR-RS model clarify how identity interactions can be used to enable new security structures by applying intensional logic. Whereas complete reliance on extensional logic – user name, fingerprint, passwords, and tokens – results in a demonstrably less secure environment. Identity and trust are essential factors for communicating identity.