Federated Identity Management Research Paper

Federated Identity management

Introduction

One of the five pillars of information security is identification and authentication. Identification is a process in which users claim an identity in the network or system, authentication is a process in which a system or network ensures that users attempting to gain access to the network or system are really who they claim to be. Recently many organisations require business-to-business collaboration. One of the solutions that enable this collaboration is federated identity management.

The aim of this research paper is to discuss various aspects of federated identity management. This paper is organised as follows: 2. is an overview of federated identity management, 3. Use cases of federated identity

Federated identity management makes use of an authentication mechanism known as single sign-on. Users only make use of one set of credentials and are automatically granted access to multiple systems.

Federated identity management introduces increased concern for security and privacy as “it shares valuable information across domains using loosely coupled network protocols” (Maler & Reed, 2008). The internet is an interconnection of networks and is not owned by anyone, therefor anything that operates on the internet is a concern for security.

Benefits of federated identity management

Federated identity management enables organisations to collaborate, assign single identity to employees for accessing multiple services.( Khattak, Sulaiman, & Manan, 2010) It assists in managing user data as there is only one instance of the user credentials, and thus eliminates data duplication which in turn results in data integrity and data consistency.

(Hoellrigl, Dinger & Hartenstein, 2010), federated identity management helps organisations achieve competitive edge over competing organisations, through business alliances and collaborations (Kamsin & Sabri, 2004).

Advantages of applying federated identity system (Niemiec & Kolucka-Szypula,

E-learning

E-learning provides a platform for students and teachers to communicate and share resources, including online live lectures, streaming, etc.

Example:

India implemented an e-earning system based on Grid paradigm. The system authorises institutions collaborating, within the collaborative classrooms. The system provides web single sign-on for the internal organisation and the different collaborating external entities. It allows students to enrol courses offered by all involved organisations.

E-Business

E- Business collaborations assist companies to share and exchange data. Identity providers collaborate with various companies, example: airlines companies, car rental companies, hotels, etc. (Niemiec & Kolucka-Szypula, 2015) states that “proper recognition of a user’s digital identity enables companies to provide personalised products and integrated services”. Example:

Figure 1, sourced from (Niemiec & Kolucka-Szypula, 2015), illustrates a tourism business