IT Life: No Identity Crisis For ID Expert

Richard Parris is CEO of the digital identity and credential management company, Intercede which he founded in 1992. Intercede’s MyID software is used by governments and corporations.

What has been your favourite project so far?
I am most proud of the work Intercede has done to enable our concept of ID anywhere and to securely provision identity credentials on any platform or form factor. Smart phones are ubiquitous and ever-present; it is the one thing people always have with them. We are enabling people to use their smartphone, or other device such as their tablet, for secure apps with the same level of confidence and ease as using a smart card in an ATM.  This is an innovation that genuinely can make the world more secure whilst being convenient, simple and easy to use.

Smart cards

What tech were you involved with ten years ago?
Ten years ago Intercede’s identity and credential management software was provisioning trusted identity on to smart cards. This was done via desktop PC and card printers.

It is interesting to note how much of this has endured; the core requirement for trusted identity has not changed and many organisations still provision identity for their employees in this way. However I made a strategic decision a couple of years ago to invest in research and development so that Intercede could deploy its software on technology such as smartphones and devices. We’re making use of technology embedded in devices – like the Trusted Execution Environment – and also virtual smart cards inside PCs and laptops to really take identity mobile.

Smart cars need identity tech

What tech do you expect to be using in ten years’ time?
I expect we will be living an almost universally connected world. People and devices will be in constant communication for convenience, welfare and security.

We will live in smart homes powered by a smart power grid, with remote health monitoring, being driven in autonomous smart cars. These experiences and utility will have to be identity-enabled if they are to be of real, life-enhancing value. I could be going home in my self-drive car, checking my home security camera on my smart watch when my fridge tells my watch I have run out of milk and automatically directs my car to the supermarket. But I want to be absolutely certain that it is my fridge, my car, my camera and my watch talking to me and to each other. Intercede’s MyID has a key role to play in enabling this future.

Who’s your tech hero?    
Sir Frank Whittle the inventor of the jet engine that was developed in Intercede’s home town of Lutterworth during WW2.

Whittle spent years fighting bureaucracy to make his vision a reality. The result changed the world by helping millions of people to travel and network. As I travel the globe promoting Intercede and the UK cyber industry I am grateful that his perseverance made my journey swifter and more convenient.

Whittle made a difference to the world in the 20th century I believe Intercede from the same Lutterworth base can do the same in the 21st.

Whittle trumps Churchill

Who’s your tech villain?
Winston Churchill for ordering the Colossus coding breaking computers at Bletchley Park to be destroyed after WW2. The early computers were two years more advanced than the US ENIAC computers and could have given Britain an early global lead in computer technology. Who knows: perhaps Silicon Valley could have been sited just outside of London and the UK could have been the world power in IT.

What’s your favourite technology ever made? Which do you use most?
The Apollo moon programme. As a boy it made me believe that there was no limit to human ingenuity. It inspired a generation of engineers. However, the tech I use most and couldn’t be without is the smartphone.

What is your budget outlook going forward? Flat? Growing?
Always growing, never flat. Looking to invest in people and research to build the global leader in cyber security. Planning to grow beyond being classified as an SME before 2020.

Apart from your own, which company do you admire most and why?
ARM for proving that a UK tech company can be a world leader.

What’s the greatest challenge for an IT company/department today?
Security; and even that is not just a single challenge but a multitude of different issues and considerations. Greater connectivity and mobility can undoubtedly be a business enabler but we need a big change in the way we think about security to make sure this technological development is built on a firm base of trust. If a company is going to enable its employees to access data and networks from anywhere, on any device, it needs to be completely certain that it knows exactly which people and devices are accessing that data and networks.

To Cloud or not to Cloud?
I started my computer career selling time-share computing. The Cloud seems to me to offer many of the same benefits updated to a 21st century delivery model – massive computing power without the cost of ownership. Perhaps there’s nothing new under the sun but I am a fan of what Cloud based services can deliver to businesses and consumers.

What did you want to be when you were a child?    
I grew up making Meccano models of cranes, trains and cars. I wanted to be an engineer and build things. I became a civil engineer, built motorways, designed nuclear power stations and migrated into computing within the aerospace industry. I am now building a world-class software company.

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