Welcome to the Trust and Identity Newsletter

The July 2017 Internet2 Trust and Identity Newsletter combines two previous efforts: the InCommon Update and the TIER Newsletter.

As background, Internet2 created a Trust and Identity division in January 2016 to bring all of the related community efforts and services under one roof. That includes the various InCommon services (including federation, certificates, and eduroam), as well as the relatively recent TIER (Trust and Identity in Education and Research) program, a community-driven, consistent approach to identity and access management. The latter includes the core components of Shibboleth (federating single sign-on software), the Grouper enterprise access management software, and the COmanage registry.

This new communication piece recognizes that identity federation, trust, organizational IAM, and the services that leverage these are all interconnected. We hope our one-stop shop makes it easier for you to find relevant information and to make connections among the services and activities. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions.

Kevin Morooney, Vice President, Trust and Identity
Internet2
kmorooney@internet2.edu

Share this newsletter with your friends and colleagues!

News & Blog Posts

Shibboleth Growth Ensures Continued Development

A continuation of development efforts is assured for one of the world’s most widely deployed federated identity solutions, thanks to growing membership in the global Shibboleth Consortium. It was recently announced that five new members have joined its ranks.

---

Tom Barton To Have Expanded Role

Tom Barton has taken on an expanded role with Internet2. The long-time Trust and Identity community leader will add new trust and identity research engagement efforts as well as a focus on federation trust and security practices to his current work at the University of Chicago.

---

New Baseline Expectations Will Affect Every InCommon Participant

Tom Barton draws our attention to a set of expectations that every InCommon participant will be required to meet. The result of a year-long iterative process of assessment and feedback, this simple, high-level list outlines what is expected from each Identity Provider, Service Provider and Federation Operator. A process for holding each other accountable is included, as well as a timeline.

---

Steward Program Proof of Concept Draws to Close

The MCNC-InCommon Steward Program proof-of-concept launched in December 2016 has now ended, and is to be followed by a six-month business development phase to complete the assessment of the program’s value for the Steward and Represented Constituents. The program is an effort to extend federation and its many advantages to K-14 institutions—K-12 schools and community colleges.

Working Groups

InCommon

New Working Groups Turn Up the Heat

Mark Scheible explains how four new InCommon working groups will tackle attributes, streamline onboarding, and other issues. Trust and identity community members are welcome—and encouraged—to join and contribute their ideas to help move the initiatives forward.

---

TIER Release Update

There’s a lot going on in the TIER Packaging working group these days. In fact, you’d better pay attention or you’ll miss something: VM-based appliances, Docker, documentation, automation, support for campus migration to TIER components, and that’s not all...

---

TIER “Minimal/Thin” Entity Registry

A data ecosystem is emerging as part of a well-defined strategy for the creation and use of data repositories supporting TIER components. Find out the difference between thick and thin entity registries, and why keeping things thin is a good idea.

---

Key Internet2 identity initiatives are supported in part by National Science Foundation grants. For more information, see specific software sites.

Visit the Internet2 Email Preferences Center to manage your email subscriptions for the Trust and Identity Newsletter, and consider subscribing to the Community Update or other newsletters of interest.