1. U.S. Federal e-Authentication Initiative
TERENA 2003
Peter Alterman, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor to the Chair, US Federal PKI Steering Committee

2. U.S. e-Authentication Initiative Goals:
To build and enable mutual trust needed to support wide spread use of electronic interactions between the public and Government, and across Governments
To minimize the burden on the public when obtaining trusted electronic services from Government agencies
To deliver common interoperable authentication solutions, ensuring they are appropriate matches for the levels of risk and business needs of each e-Government initiative
TERENA 2003

3. The Challenge to Interoperability
Authentication interoperability becomes much more complex as the number of credential providers and relying parties increases.
TERENA 2003 8

4. Authentication Gateway
The Need for the Authentication Gateway
Credential Providers
Authentication Gateway
Relying Parties
The Authentication Gateway simplifies interoperability:
Common way to determine and validate “Trusted” credentials
“Common Rules” for Agreements among Gateway, Agencies and Credential Providers.
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5. Defining the Need Privilege Management e-Gov Initiatives High Risk
Signature
Required
Identity
Verification
Required
High Risk
e-Gov Initiatives
Low Risk
Identity
Verification
Not Required
General
Information
Personal
Information
Change
Request
Benefits
Application
Proprietary
Information
Privilege Management

6. A Vision for the Future State or Federal Government Health Care
Citizen
Business
Agent
Direct
Access
Capability
Preserved
Credential
Providers
State or Federal
Government
Identity
Verification
Not Required
Identity
Verification
Required
Health Care
This is our vision of the eAuthentication Gateway and how it will work with first gov. The Credential Providers includes use of the ACES program, NFC’s PKI Infrastructure and the Federal Bridge. This also acknowledges States that have currently set up their own Authentication Tools.
Credential
Validation
Process
eAuthentication
Gateway
Federal Agency
Relying Parties
Academia
TERENA 2003

7. The U.S. e-Authentication Gateway
Is not:
An issuer of ID credentials
A collector of personal information
A repository of information
The Federal Bridge Certification Authority
e-Security
Is:
A provider of validation services for multiple forms of ID credentials
A source of risk/assurance levels for multiple forms of ID credentials
Available for all e-Gov initiatives
TERENA 2003

8. Status of U.S. e-Authentication Program
R&D has shown that the E-Auth industry is currently:
Enterprise-based rather than inter-enterprise
Centrally managed rather than distributed
Proprietary solutions rather than open
Priced for the enterprise rather than multi-enterprise
The RFI responses and other research has shown that the E-Auth industry is:
Adopting federated solutions
Evolving to distributed management
Utilizing open standards
Adapting pricing to multi-enterprise solutions
Agency E-Gov systems are becoming ready to utilize a common open, standards-based e-Auth infrastructure
TERENA 2003

9. U.S. e-Authentication Message to Government:
Prototype Gateway is operational in a test environment as of 9/30/02
It will undergo a delta certification and accreditation (C&A) for live transactions by 01/06/03
Gateway will provide authentication and verification services to the 24 e-Gov initiatives
Gateway will provide authentication services across Government lines of business
TERENA 2003

10. U.S. e-Authentication and Higher Education:
E-Grants project will create standard XML objects to assemble various grant application “forms”
Universities will fill out forms locally and upload them to the e-Grants site
Extended NIH-EDUCAUSE PKI Interoperability Pilot Project will:
Use e-Grants XML forms
Incorporate the e-Authentication Gateway into the certificate validation path
Demonstrate alternate signing and authZ approaches
TERENA 2003

11. Simplified Concept of Operations
Digitally
Signed
Grant App.
E-Authentication
Gateway
FBCA
Validate certs
HEBCA
Receipt and
Authorization
Server U N V E R S T Y
CA - Research Institution
Audit
Log
(NARA) I B M
Agency Back End
Processing
TERENA 2003

12. Contact Information
Dr. Peter Alterman, Assistant Chief Information Officer for Electronic Authentication, NIH
Deborah Blanchard, Project Manager, Digital Signature Trust / Identrus
TERENA 2003