Security-enabling GÉANT2 service issued
Thursday 6 November 2008, Cambridge, UK: GÉANT2, the high bandwidth, pan-European research and education network, has announced the release of GIdP (GÉANT Identity Provider), which enables safe, secure access to a number of GÉANT2 and related network services. GIdP is a precursor service to the developmental GÉANT2 service eduGAIN, and works in a similar way to provide a federated Authentication Service across the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) that serve Europe’s research and education community.
The GIdP service is a temporary service that has been put in place until the eduGAIN federation, a service to allow seamless and secure sharing of identity data, is fully rolled out across Europe. GIdP allows the transfer of authentication and authorisation data between federations and allows the user, wherever they are located, seamless access to a number of GÉANT2 services. As the name suggests, it is a simple Identity Provider system, where user identities and attributes are registered. GÉANT2 services across the pan-European backbone and the national networks can then redirect users to GIdP for authentication and access. Technically, GIdP is a stand-alone federation similar to the other national Authentication and Authorisation (AA) federations that will confederate with eduGAIN.
The GIdP service also benefits from the using the award winning SimpleSAMLphp technology. This was recently highlighted at the 2008 Identity Deployment of the Year Awards (IDDY) in the Emerging Application category for its innovative solution for security and privacy protection.
GIdP is available as a temporary service because it is expected that not all the national AA federations will be able to join eduGAIN immediately following its roll out. GIdP therefore provides a practical solution to the NRENs and their users during this transition phase. In particular, it is expected that early users of multi-domain services like perfSONAR and AutoBAHN will benefit from GIdP.
Dai Davies, General Manager, DANTE commented, “With the constant security and identity issues of today’s online environment, GIdP and eduGAIN will help provide an accessible solution to this serious problem, allowing researchers across Europe and the world continue to safely and securely collaborate on cutting-edge projects.”
In order to benefit from GIdP, each NREN needs to nominate a GIdP User Administrator that is responsible for registering the end users in that country. From the GÉANT2 partners, there are currently 23 registered NREN GIdP User Administrators. Registration allows the administrators (and the users they register) access to a GIdP service desk that can provide support with installation of the service and troubleshooting. To login or request access details visit http://gidp.geant2.net.
If your NREN is not listed please contact gidp-service-admin@dante.org.uk
For further information please contact:
Helen Martindale
DANTE
Direct: +44 (0)1223 371 328
Mobile: +44 (0)7823 538090
helen.martindale@dante.org.uk
