The IDEF provides a baseline set of standards and policies that apply to all of the participating trust frameworks. This baseline is more permissive at the lowest levels of assurance, to ensure that it does not serve as an undue barrier to entry, and more detailed at higher levels of assurance, to ensure that participants have adequate protections.
The IDEF is a living document, and will evolve in order to reach the agreed upon policies and technical standards necessary to fulfill the NSTIC’s vision. Currently, the IDEF contains a minimal set of commonly agreed upon recommendations, best practices and standards, but will become more robust over time as participants are able to come to agreement on different aspects of the Identity Ecosystem, not only in general but for key communities of interest and industry segments such as healthcare, financial services and education.