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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.

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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)

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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

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Not Just Authorisation

Authentication is required for more than just authorisationAuthentication is required for more than just authorisation

Authentication

Authorisation

Personalisation

ClientClient

ClientClient

ClientClient

ServerServer

ServerServer

ServerServer

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 likeOh, and as your visually impaired they are in x format

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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

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Deployment Model

• 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 (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

Bath Univ.BIDS

CodeResources /Services

People

eLib, JTAP

JISC

Authentication body

Authenticated body

Bath Univ.

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Users / organisations

/ ...

User Authentication

Desktop brower exploits certificates

BIDS

Desktop / server proxy

User Signatures

User Services

Local

RemoteLocal or Remote

Process to implement policy (e.g. authorisation)

The process to implement policy could be an Apache module, a Windows NT / IIS program, etc.

The process to implement policy could be an Apache module, a Windows NT / IIS program, etc.

Multiple Access Policies

Cultural Studies Gateway:Policy - freely available

Technological University / Engineering Dept:

No thanks

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Resource Authentication

Available now in web browsers

Can check:• Server• Resource• Mobile code

Infrastructure for widespread deployment not yet in pace

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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.

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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 >

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The Market PlayersMany players in marketplace BT Trustwise at

http://www.trustwise.com/

BT Trustwise at http://www.trustwise.com/

Verisign at http://www.verisign.com/

Verisign at http://www.verisign.com/

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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