Who We Are
Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Reliable Identities is a team of experienced information technology professionals who are dedicated to solving information security problems through the use of sound key management and enrollment technology and methods.
What We Do
We provide proven and effective key management appliances and services as well as identity consulting and enrollment services to ensure that our clients' sensitive information is well protected in ways that fully comply with applicable statutes and industry regulations.
How We Do It
Reliable Identities partners with StrongAuth, Inc. and other select providers of technology and services which, when combined with our internal expertise, assures our clients of the very best in protection and compliance.
Serving Your Needs
Identity is the Foundation of Security.™
Let Reliable Identities help you make your information resources secure and manageable by ensuring thorough and efficient compliance with PCI DSS regulations and by establishing measurably reliable identities using our unprecedented IDQA™ methodology.
Our Team
Wes Kussmaul, Founder and CEO
Ed Schmidt, President
Dr. Peter Hadley, Director of Software Engineering
The Reliable Identities team represents decades of experience in the field of secure online spaces and establishment of authenticity.
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Wes Kussmaul, Founder and CEO
Wes brings three decads of experience in the development and management of secure online spaces to his work at Reliable Identities. In 1981 Wes founded Delphi Internet Services Corporation and its Kussmaul Encyclopedia, the world's first computerized encyclopedia, an early example of hypertext. In 1989, Delphi became the first to bring the Internet to mass audiences. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation acquired Delphi in 1993.
While CEO of Delphi, Mr. Kussmaul launched a spin-off company, Global Villages, Inc., to provide magazine publishers with the business planning, design, engineering, hosting, management, and promotion services that allowed them to offer online services to their subscribers and advertisers under their own name. During that time Wes realized that the unboundedness of the Web posed obstacles to the kind of secure communities and reliable identities needed by publishers and other relying parties. In order to focus on the authenticity issue, Wes sold the hosting portion of Global Villages Inc. to NTT Verio.
The continuing operation, now called The Authenticity Institute, turned its attention to enrollment technologies that will enable secure and reliable online spaces governed by the principles of professional licensing, building codes, and occupancy permits.
In 2002 The Authenticity Institute became a charter signatory to the International Telecommunication Union's World e-Trust Initiative and is now a Sector Member of the ITU. In 2007 the Secretary General of the ITU asked Wes to serve as a member of the High Level Experts Group in the ITU's Global Cybersecurity Agenda; and as a member of that group was asked to present his QEI vision of an authenticity-infused secure Internet to a meeting of the United Nations World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).
Wes is the author of several books about privacy and authenticity, including Quiet Enjoyment (2004), Own Your Privacy (2007), and The Future Needs You (2007). He is also an individual adherent of the International Union of Latin Notaries and has been appointed a Notary Ambassador by the National Notary Association.
Wes received his BS in Physics from the University of Central Missouri in 1971 while serving in the US Air Force at Whiteman Air Force Base (SAC) and did graduate study in Business Administration at Boston University. -
Ed Schmidt, President
Ed began his career at Bolt, Beranek & Newman, Inc. (BBN), the prime contractor for the ARPANet, which became the Internet. Although he was involved in early Internet development, Ed's time at BBN began with work on acoustic technologies, predominately forensic and underwater acoustics (Ed and a small team of experts analyzed the acoustic evidence in the US House of Representatives investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy).
After several years as a senior analyst in underwater acoustics, Ed spearheaded a group focused on the development of highly sophisticated SONAR systems utilizing advanced signal processing and systems technologies. This group grew five-fold in three years and developed a substantial reputation among its client community for leading edge system development.
As the Internet grew, Ed developed a successful Internet marketing and Web development consultancy focused on small to mid-sized retail and service organizations.
At LavaStorm, a startup Internet systems engineering firm, Ed managed the design and development of several ultra-high concurrency Internet sites of national and international scope, including a gaming site which could accommodate up to 4 million simultaneous contestants in a head to head tournament with a $1m grand prize.
Ed received his his BSEECS from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MSEE and MBA from Stanford University. -
Dr. Peter Hadley, Director of Software Engineering
Dr. Hadley is responsible for development of many of the software components of the enrollment procedures of Reliable Identities. His previous experience includes developing a new email generating system and gift certificate customer acquisition application for Amazon.com, responsibility for all email systems at PlanetAll.com including automated generation and response, CTO at InfoDeal.com, and twenty-five years in consulting and university faculty positions.
Dr. Hadley received his Ph.D. and A.M. from Princeton University, M.S. from Northeastern University, and S.B. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Our History
Reliable Identities is a unit of The Authenticity Institute, Inc., a spinoff of Delphi Internet Services Corporation. Founded in 1981, Delphi earned its claim as "The Company That Popularized The Internet" by harnessing the popular curiosity that had grown around the early Internet during the time when its usage had been limited to researchers and academics. Delphi was the first to capitalize on the lifting of the ban on commercial activity on the Net.
The Authenticity Institute had been launched as an independent spinoff of Delphi, and was not part of the News Corporation acquisition. The company served magazine publishers and business clients by designing, building and managing their own private-label online services. During the next twelve years The Authenticity Institute provided business planning, design, engineering, hosting, management and promotion services for Digital Equipment Corporation, William F. Buckley's National Review, BioTechniques, Hardcopy, International Business, Business Digest, and many other companies and magazines.
In 1998 The Authenticity Institute sold its hosting business to NTT Verio in order to focus its resources on meeting the need for reliable identities of participants in online spaces. Three years later the first component of the Quiet Enjoyment Infrastructure, the VIVOS® Enrollment Workstation, was introduced. In 2002 The Authenticity Institute became a signatory to the International Telecommunication Union's World e-Trust Initiative, whose goal is to bring the benefit of PKI-based authenticity to the online world.
Future
The world is coming to realize that it needs more than information highways. In the physical world, highways bring us to spaces called buildings where we can share information in ways that are private, secure, and manageable. Identity is the Foundation of Security™ and The Authenticity Institute is dedicated to providing our clients with the virtual equivalent of buildings, where bounded spaces for specific workgroups provide built-in security and manageability.
Reliable Identities is a Premier Partner in The Authenticity Alliance.
Reliable Identities
738 Main Street
Suite 360
Waltham, MA 02451
USA
781 790 1674