An Identity Ecosystem Cloud (IEC) provides global, scalable, cloud-based, cryptographic identity services as an identity assurance mechanism for other services, such as data storage, web services, and electronic commerce engines. The IEC complements these other services by providing enhanced identity protection and authentication. An IEC performs identity services using surrogate digital certificates having encryption keys that are never exposed to the public. An individual requesting other services must meet an identity challenge before access to these other services is granted. Service requests to the IEC, and responses from the IEC, are securely encrypted. An IEC integrates smoothly into existing services by layering on top of, or being used in conjunction with, existing security measures. Identity transactions may be logged in a manner that complies with strict medical and financial privacy laws.