Shibboleth in Finnish Higher Education Organisations

E-ICOLC 2005

Poznan, Poland

HAKA FEDERATIONfederation for Finnish higher education

• formed in May 2005• cooperation between

Finnish HE organisations and CSC (Finnish IT center for science)

• aim to provide inter-organisational network services

• protocol chosen = Shibboleth

• six universities have signed the federation agreement– common set of policies and

rules• federation member can act as

1. home organisation– maintains identity information

of end users– authentication– up-to date user identity

management system

2. service provider– provides services

HAKA FEDERATIONfederation for Finnish higher education

identity providers– University of Helsinki– Tampere University of

Technology– Helsinki University of

Technology

authentication

service providers– Nelli-portal– A&O learning management

system– JOOPAS (electronic circulation

of applications for visiting student in another university)

– CSC's extranet for Funet member organisations

authorisation

Nelli portal (MetaLib/SFX)

Resources• e-journals, reference

databases, e-books, reference works

• library catalogues

Users• universities (21),

polytechnics (31)• public libraries

– over 400 public libraries– 20 regional libraries– Central public library

Advantages

• secure, privacy-preserved manner of exchanging information (safe from attacks)

• possibility for more tailored services based on user roles (attributes)

• single sign-on to services regardless of the organisation who produces them

• the more services available the more benefit for users single sign-on

Advantages

• remote use• service providers need not maintain user

registerscan take advantage of user’s home organisation’s

registers

• when publishers choose Shibbolethno more ip numbers needed for authorisation