Stefan Brands is an entrepreneur and former cryptography

Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...

 researcher whose work has focused on digital identity

Digital identity

Digital identity is the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people's experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things...

, electronic money

Electronic money

Electronic money is money or scrip that is only exchanged electronically. Typically, this involves the use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems...

, and information privacy. He obtained his doctorate from Eindhoven University of Technology

Eindhoven University of Technology

The ' is a university of technology located in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The motto of the university is: Mens agitat molem . The university was the second of its kind in the Netherlands, only Delft University of Technology existed previously. Until mid-1980 it was known as the...

 while at CWI in Amsterdam. In 2002 Stefan founded Credentica to advance his U-Prove

U-Prove

U-Prove is a cryptographic technology for claims-based identity management developed by Stefan Brands and the company he founded, Credentica. It aims to offer greater security, scalability, and privacy than existing identity management frameworks, and allows for claims to be tied to the use of...

 technology. In February 2008 Credentica sold U-Prove to Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, and Stefan joined its Connected Systems Division for two years as a Principal Architect to assist in opening up the technology. Stefan holds an Adjunct Professorship at McGill University School of Computer Science

McGill University School of Computer Science

The School of Computer Science is a School in the Faculty of Science at McGill University located in the McConnell Engineering Building at 3480 University, Montreal. The school is the second most funded computer science department in Canada. It currently has 34 faculty members, 60 Ph.D...

 in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 and is an advisor to the Electronic Privacy Information Center

Electronic Privacy Information Center

Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research group in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values in the information age...

 (EPIC) and the ISP Institute of University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

. Prior to Credentica, Stefan worked at Zero-Knowledge Systems and DigiCash

DigiCash

DigiCash Inc. was a pioneering electronic currency corporation founded by David Chaum in 1990. DigiCash transactions were unique in that they were anonymous due to a number of cryptographic protocols developed by its founder...

, both of which were licensees of his technology.