1. Identity Management Internet2 Fall Meeting Jack Suess, CIO, UMBC http://userpages.umbc.edu/~jack/talks/idman.htm

2. 2 Identity Management Definition What do we mean by Identity Management? CSU definition - An identity management infrastructure is a collection of technology and policy that enables networked computer systems to determine who has access to them, what resources the person is authorized to access, while protecting individual privacy and access to confidential information.

3. 3 Let’s Analyze the Definition Infrastructure - software and hardware Collection - not just technology Technology and policy - Policy is as important as technology Networked computer systems - implies distributed technology and communication over the network Access - Who am I Authorized - What can I do Protecting - limiting access and protecting information

4. 4 Infrastructure for Identity Management Common elements System of record (SOR) - system for identifying university membership (e.g. SIS, HR, Alumni) Registry - aggregation point where key data elements from SOR are integrated Directory - LDAP service that organizes registry information and responds to requests Authenticator - service that authenticates (e.g. Kerberos) WebISO - web-based authentication Groups - university roles Services - application services that utilize IdM Policy - definitions and structure

5. 5 UMBC Directory Architecture

6. 6 Authentication API University Addressbook OnCourse Active Directory SteelWeb PgsPplSftInsite Shakes/ Jewels ----------------- Applications and Services ------------------ Modems Foundation Other University Affiliations Continuing Studies Others University People Information Eclipse Alumni MY IUUIS Appl Virtual Private Network (VPN) ERAFIS Demographic Data HR Data Others LibraryOthers Personal Account Creation & Administration (Self Service) Authorization API Information Extract (LDAP) Extract/Load Process GDS Enterprise Directory/ Information Store PIN Token Password Authentication SIDEMPID ISN MATH Major C201 UITS IUK IU.EDU E-mail Name Space Grades Clerk Acct Manager HR Rep Advisor Kerberos Safeword AS Server Core Services Authorization & Roles DB Other Directories ADS, Departmental Accounts Staff Local/ Campus Support Providers Account/Information Mgt & Maint

7. 7 Technology and Policy Policy Issues Rules for membership in your community. Who is an active student, who is a faculty member, who is an alumni? Who is eligible for an account? Under what circumstances? What services are they allowed to access? Who can sponsor affiliate members? How long do you remain a member of the community? What about guests or the public?

8. 8 Authentication and Authorization Authentication - Who am I? Shared secret -- password? Secret key - PKI Biometrics/other? Authorization - What am I allowed to do or access? Affinity groups are defined and populated. Roles are based on a combination of affinities. Identity Management system must answer both questions.

9. 9 Security and Availability An Identity Management (IdM) system is a the heart of defining who may have accounts on different systems The IdM is exposed to the Internet and must be hardened and protected as a critical IT resource Key Issues: Failover Capacity to meet peak loads Capacity to meet critical service needs Replication and distribution are key

10. 10 Beginning an Identity Management Project Executive sponsorship is critical. Develop a business case for the project and treat it like any other development project The project will have tremendous implications inside IT on how you provide services, make certain you get everyone on board. The project requires access to data. Get agreements in place from data stewards before beginning project. Don’t scrimp on hardware, focus on 99.999 uptime

11. 11 Questions to Answer What follows are some questions you want to have answered prior to starting your Identity Management project

12. 12 How do you define who is eligible for different services? Obvious: staff, faculty, students Less obvious: –Alumni, supporters? –Parents –Sponsored or affiliate ID’s –Transient e.g. meetings and conferences –Former employees –Research partners –Affiliates: auxiliaries, credit union, teachers

13. 13 Eligibility -- Thorny Issues Intermittent roles – persistent ID’s? –Lecturers, seasonal employees –students Multiple roles – change roles, keep ID’s? –Student workers –Staff students Multi-campus issues- common id across system? Does everyone need to be in your IDM? “Frontier-class” service

14. 14 Eligibility -- Create Policy First Indiana Policy defines who can have and sponsor accounts. Accounts Management System will implement policy in software.

15. 15 What were the challenges in creating a single namespace? Once you define who is eligible to be in your IM you must create a person registry from multipe SOR. For each person in the registry you must define an account name. Dealing with conflicts is a political challenge. Get agreement on ground rules prior to starting the project. Provide flexibility. People care more about their email address than they do their username! When creating new authentication service, require strong passwords!

16. 16 Indiana University Name Space Had to work across 8 campuses plus 4 major data centers Ground work in 1988 with "username format summit"*Namespace consolidation project began "in earnest" in 1997 Required high-level leverage (University CIO) Consisted of iterative generation and review of name lists of various naming organizations Person who had name first got to keep it Took 3 years to complete

17. 17 Namespace Person who had an identifier the longest got to keep it Took over 3 years to complete In 2002, moved namespace to enterprise LDAP directory UMBC created common namespace in 1995 when we merged academic and administrative computing In 2002 we allowed users to select account name and promote that they create custom email aliases (up to 3). Giving custom email aliases lessens namespace complaints

18. 18 Distribution of Credentials Identity Management usually necessitates automated distribution of credentials Credentials are managed through an account management system Faculty/staff/students initiate account process online. Account holders (faculty/staff) may be authorized to sponsor affiliates. Affiliate accounts are linked to the sponsor.

19. 19 Will authentication strength vary by application type? Consider providing alternative authentication methods and allow services to specify level of authentication and timeout period We use two levels and we are looking at a third level { id : pin ; username:password } We would like a third level that we use in addition to username:password WebISO defines password level, timeout duration, attributes released, etc.

20. 20 How do you handle authorization to services? Problem: our legacy services assumed that authentication implies authorization. Remedy: Use IdM to define affiliations and control access by group membership Strategy: Create 15-20 automatically maintained major affiliation types (example: faculty, staff, student, affiliate and several gradations of each) to define roles Challenge: It isn’t easy to keep this maintained and not all services can use groups

21. 21 How do you insure privacy and accountability? Rapidly evolving area -- GLB,HIPAA, CA SB-1386, etc. Directory services allows services to be delegated more broadly -- make sure staff that get access are trained in privacy regulations Review logging procedures and log retention Limit who has direct access to the directory and who can update the directory IdM can serve role as translator and lessen use of private data such as SSN One consequence of directories is that it can facilitate spamming, limit trolling

22. 22 Revocation of Credentials? Worked with IT Steering Committee and faculty senate 18 months on account deletion plans. Developed state diagram, accounts transition through these states. Time in each state is determined by UMBCperson affiliation Requires ability to delegate authority on accounts to sponsoring entity. They can sponsor anyone but take responsibility for those they sponsor. Runs nightly based on last effective date Highly political - everyone wants free access

23. 23 Account State Diagram

24. 24 Revocation (cont)

25. 25 Future Plans Expanding person affinities and defining the group membership criteria Implement Shibboleth with our Web-ISO Implement user-selectable privacy filters for user controlled release of information Expand the API for our using our WebISO

26. 26 Questions Jack Suess - jack@umbc.edujack@umbc.edu Online Slides http://userpages.umbc.edu/~jack/talks/idman.htm Resources: http://middleware.internet2.edu/ http://www.nmi-edit.org/