Given the nature of resleeving technologies, identity is a fluid concept in Eclipse Phase. Transhumans are used to the idea of identifying people by how they look or even by their biometric data, but this is no longer a certified method. What you look like may drastically change from one day to the next. You may see an olympian you recognize, but perhaps it’s been awhile, so you’re no longer certain that it’s the same person still in that morph. If you’re sleeved in a popular off-the-rack morph, there may be hundreds of other cloned morphs that look exactly like you out there—perhaps useful if you desire to blend in. Similarly, security services can no longer rely on biometric technologies. Forensics may be able to identify an individual morph’s presence at a crime scene, but proving who was in that morph at the time is another matter.
==Ego ID== 
Identity is, of course, tied to ego, and various authorities have instituted verification and security measures based on this. Within the inner system, each ego is given an ID number, which is used to validate their identity, citizenship, legal status, credit accounts, licensing, etc. This ego ID is verifiable by the person’s brain patterns, which remain the same even when resleeving. When an ego uploads, the uploading service is required to incorporate this ego ID into the person’s backup/infomorph. Likewise, when that person resleeves, the service handling the procedure is required by law to verify the ego’s ID before downloading. The ego ID is then hardcoded into the morph itself in the form of a nanotattoo on the tip of the person’s index fnger. This nanotat can be easily scanned at security checkpoints to verify identity. 
Though effcient, this system is far from perfect. For one, ID record-keeping is far from standardized and varies drastically from habitat to habitat. Most do not share records with each other unless they are part of the same political alliance in order to protect their citizens’ privacy. For example, Lunar-Lagrange Alliance stations do not share citizenship ID data with the Planetary Consortium, though they do share with each other. 
On top of this, many identity records were lost during the Fall, a situation that was undoubtedly exploited by those who preferred to erase their past or adopt a new persona. These all make for a situation where identity records are patchwork at best. Officials must also rely on the security of other habitats for ID verifcation. If a person egocasts to Nectar on Luna from Qing Long in the Martian Trojans and the Nectar offcials have no record of this person, they can only trust that the Qing Long officials did their job when verifying the subject’s ID and background.
To make matters worse, many autonomist habitats operate without identity checks altogether. Though some ID measures are still used, both to prevent reputation-system gaming and to be able to identify bodies in the case of death, these uses are significantly more lax and few records are kept. Therefore, when autonomists and the like egocast to habitats that require ID, they are assigned a temporary ID for the duration of their stay (and sometimes any future visits).
==Identity Verification== 
There are three ways to verify someone’s identity: nanotat scan, brainwave scan, and checking the cryptographic hash on a digital mind.
===Nanotat scans=== 
Special encoded nanobots are used to create a small nanotat on a person’s index fnger. These nanobots contain encoded information that includes their name and identity, brainwave pattern, citizenship/legal status, credit account number, insurance information, and licenses. Depending on the local habitat laws, it may include other information such as criminal history, travel history, restricted implants, employment records, and so on. This nanotat may be read by anyone with a special ID scanner that reads the nanobot encoding. ID nanotats include information on the company that did the resleeving, so that the data may be accessed and verifed with their records online. The data on the nanotat is also cryptographically signed with the company’s public key, meaning that anyone who checks the data and the signature online can tell if the data has been altered.
===Brainprints=== 
Brain scans are one of the few types of biometric prints that stay with an ego no matter what morph it is in. They are impractical for most security purposes as they require a scan with a combination electroencephalogram and neuroimaging device, referred to as a brainprint scanner, which takes approximately 5 minutes. This device measures the subject’s baseline brainwave pattern as well as the subject’s signature responses when they think certain thoughts or sense certain patterns. These scans are all but impossible to fool, however, barring hacking of the brainprint scanner itself, and so are considered quite reliable. For this reason they are occasionally used in high-security facilities. It is worth noting that infection by some variants of the exsurgent virus, notably the Watts-MacLeod strain, sometimes alters a person’s brain patterns, but not in every case.
===Digital ID Code=== 
Digital ID codes are often incorporated into backups and infomorphs. Not only does this help identify who the backup belongs to, but it serves as an electronic signature for verifying ID when the backup is to be resleeved. This digital code typically contains the same information as the nanotat ID, and is signed with a cryptographic hash that makes it diffcult to forge and which can be verifed online. AIs and AGIs also feature such built-in codes.
==Circumventing ID Checks== 
Firewall sentinels and clandestine agents often have a need to hide or alter their identities. While ID system are challenging, they are not insurmountable.
===Fake IDs=== 
The easiest way to bypass security checks is to establish a fake ID. Given the patchwork nature of identity records and the lack of any centralized authority, this is not very diffcult. Numerous crime syndicates and even some autonomist groups maintain a thriving ID fabrication business, often with complete histories and medical covers for implants that might be restricted or illegal.
These IDs are usually registered with habitats that are either known criminal havens, have autonomist sympathies, or are isolated and remote. Though the ID is actually verifable and registered with these stations, the potential shady origins of such IDs is known to most inner system authorities and so the character may be exposed to extra scrutiny or monitoring. Fake IDs may be acquired that are registered with more respected authorities, but this often requires a much higher expense or connections to hypercorp clandestine operations.
Black market darkcast and resleeving options offer fake IDs as a matter of course.
===Altering Nanotat IDs=== 
Special nanobot treatments may be manufactured to erase, rewrite, or replace nanotat IDs. Erasing a nanotat is easy, but not having one is a crime and immediate grounds for suspicion in many habitats. Rewriting a nanotat is also easy, though this means that the nanotat will fail its authorization online unless the encryption has also been cracked.
Replacing a nanotat ID with a fake one is just as possible and is part of the process of acquiring a fake ID.
===Digital ID Tampering=== 
Digital ID codes may also be tampered with, though like nanotat IDs this will mean that the ID fails online verification unless the encryption is also defeated.

[ [[Home]] | [[Game Rules]] ]