Authentication and Open Standards

1. Authenticationand Open Standards Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is funded by the British Library Research and Innovation Centre, the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC’s Electronic Libraries Programme and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.

2. What Are Open Standards? • Open specification (not owned) e.g. HTML (but not RTF - or Java?) • Avoids patented technologies (e.g. GIF) - dangers of rights being sold • Freely available implementations (open source) as well as commercial implementations (cf. Web browsers and servers) • Cross-platform browsers and servers (distributed architecture) • Extensible - future-proof, so still usable when something new arrives • Distributed (inter-operable)

3. Authentication Requirements • Users • This is Jane Brown, of Bath University • For restricting access to authorised users • Servers • This is the SOSIG gateway, of the eLib program, funded by JISC, which supports the BSxxx cataloguers guidelines • For use by brokers • Resources • This document is the terms and conditions • Code • This Java code conforms to Bath Univ guidelines • For authentication of bona fide teaching applications

4. Not Just Authorisation • Authentication is required for more than just authorisation This is me (really) OK Can I have the ISI dataset OK, you're allowed to have that Hi, its me again I remember you. Here are some extra resources I think you'll like Oh, and as your visually impaired they are in x format Client Authentication Server Client Authorisation Server Client Server Personalisation

5. Digital Certificates • "A digital certificate is an electronic "credit card" that establishes your credentials when doing business or other transactions on the Web. It is issued by a certification authority (CA). It contains your name, a serial number, expiration dates, a copy of the certificate holder's public key." • "Internet business and many other transactions require a more stringent authentication process [than usernames]. The use of digital certificates issued and verified by a Certificate Authority (CA) as part of a Public Key Infrastructure is considered likely to become the standard way to perform authentication on the Internet." - whatis.com

6. Deployment Model JISC • CVCP (say) authenticates universities. JISC (say) JISC services and JISC funding programmes • Universities then authenticate people (staff and students), resources (documents), code (Java and ActiveX) and services (information gateway, online course) CVCP BIDS eLib, JTAP Bath Univ. Bath Univ. People Resources /Services Code Authentication body Authenticated body

7. User Authentication • The process to implement policy could be an Apache module, a Windows NT / IIS program, etc. Remote Local or Remote Users / organisations / ... User Services Local BIDS User Signatures Process to implement policy (e.g. authorisation) Desktop / server proxy Multiple Access Policies Desktop brower exploits certificates • Cultural Studies Gateway: • Policy - freely available • Technological University / Engineering Dept: • No thanks

8. Resource Authentication • Available now in web browsers • Can check: • Server • Resource • Mobile code • Infrastructure for widespread deployment not yet in pace

9. Service Authentication • In ecommerce: • Find online banks which provide loans which are members of the Banking Corporation • Search for hotels which cost < £100 and are members of the Good Banking organisation • In HE: • Find online courses which are given by institutes recognised by the HEFCE and the US equivalent • Cross-search UK and US gateways using the new FooBar distributed search protocol and which are funded by JISC or NSF and which abide by the TRUSTe privacy guidelines • Note that authenticated services which provide service details in machine-readable format will be needed for deployment of intelligent agents, brokers, etc.

10. How Close to Implementation? • We Want an Extranet! • Thawte's white paper on Strong Extranets describes similar functionality to UK HE's requirements: • Students provided with email and access control certificate • "Relative identity" (student no.) stored in certificate and processed by applications See <URL:http://www.thawte.com/certs/strongextranet/contents.html>

11. The Market Players BT Trustwise at http://www.trustwise.com/ • Many players in marketplace Verisign at http://www.verisign.com/

12. What Next? • Need to avoid reinventing coloured books! • Gain Experience from Bottom Up • Learn from departmental / organisational experiences • Funding of pilots (see JTAP projects at <URL: http://www.jtap.ac.uk/>) • Top Down Approach • EU / UK initiatives • e-commerce developments • Awareness of Alternatives • Smart cards • Pentium ID • Proprietary solutions • Continuation of discussions, monitoring developments, healthy scepticism, etc. • Main problems are political and organisational