Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) will hold an announcement today on the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). This initiative will try to make people’s online passwords more secure. From The Hill: The administration argues consistent standards for online identification and authentication will make transactions faster, safer and more private. The website for the NSTIC emphasizes that participation in the “identity ecosystem” will be voluntary. “You will still be able to surf the Web, write a blog, participate in an online discussion, and post comments to a wiki anonymously or using a pseudonym,” the site states. “You would choose when to use your trusted ID. When you want stronger identity protection, you use your credential, enabling higher levels of trust and security.”