Trusted Electronic Communications for Federal Student Aid Mark Luker Vice President EDUCAUSE Copyright Mark Luker, This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

How important? Moving to the net is a key strategy throughout higher education, government, and industry Timeliness, accuracy, efficiency Customer satisfaction FSA is a critical component All colleges, millions of students A gateway to education

Complications Many transactions require authentication Who are you (really)? Some require signatures “I promise to ….” Present methods are limited PINs and passwords New IDs for each person and application Difficult and expensive Tower of Babel

Vision Solution Each campus adopts a PKI Standard campus electronic IDs and signatures for most activities on campus Use the same IDs and signatures for communications with FSA Simplify the management and security of electronic identification Reduce costs of both parties

Barriers IDs and signatures may not interoperate Different vendors and issuing authorities Need to translate to establish trust Technical and policy issues Too large for case-by-case agreements Requires N squared lawyers!

Islands of Trust

Model Solution Federal Bridge Certification Authority Translates IDs between federal agencies Higher Ed Bridge Certification Authority Translates IDs between colleges Hook them together Translate IDs between higher ed and the federal agencies Both technology and policy

A Vision for the Future

Dept. of Education and the Bridge Office of Federal Student Aid will connect with the Federal Bridge Demo project will accept campus signatures from campus officers Trust verified through the Higher Ed Bridge Multiple campuses and vendors FSA will compare with other methods

Implications for the campus Use your own IDs and signatures to communicate with FSA Same method would work for NIH, IRS, DoD, INS, NSF, … An elegant and inexpensive solution based on your campus PKI

EDUCAUSE Partnership with FSA Pilot system that scales to many campuses, applications, agencies Work together to model electronic communications for student services Benefit students, campuses, FSA A powerful win-win-win

Further Information

Project Concept of Operations NIH OER Recipient E-Lock Assured Office Digital Signed Grant App. E-Lock Assured Office CAM-enabled NIH CAM Server with DAVE FBCA HEBCA Cert Status Cert Status Certificate Validation University B Certificate Validation University A Certificate Validation University C