Why Fair Credit Reporting Act is important

Given that in the United States, most activities center around debt and credit management, a consumer’s credit report is perhaps one of his or her most important financial documents. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) defines the procedures for managing credit reporting. It provides protection and guidelines for credit reporting agencies as well as users of credit reports. There are a number of authentication services, including ones used by eBay (in conjunction with VeriSign), that verify the identity of a buyer using a combination of public and nonpublic information, including credit report information.

Because a credit report gives authenticity not only to a consumer’s identity but also to his or her credit worthiness, a rating can be assigned for the given application. Many of these services must comply with the FCRA. The PKI piece comes into play when, after authenticating the user, the user is given a digital certificate as proof of that authentication. This provides a persistent proof over a period of time of that user’s validity. A user name and password can more easily be stolen, so a certificate tied with a personal identification number (PIN) provides the best method of authentication. [PKI security solutions for enterprise, Kapil Raina]