November 6, 2020
The InCommon Steering Committee has approved the second set of Baseline Expectations, including three technical requirements aimed at improving security and the user experience. This follows an extensive community collaboration and consultation process. Baseline Expectations 2 (BE2) includes three additional elements that all participants must meet during 2021.
- Each Identity Provider and Service Provider will secure its connection endpoints with current and trusted encryption (TLS) (see details on the wiki)
- All Identity Providers and Service Providers will comply with the SIRTFI international security response framework (see details on the wiki)
- All Identity Providers will include an error URL in metadata (see details on the wiki)
The InCommon community adopted Baseline Expectations for Trust in Federation in 2018, including a set of common expectations that all participants must meet. The effort concluded successfully in February 2019, when 100 percent of Federation participants met those expectations.
Led by the InCommon Community Trust and Assurance Board, the community determined that a set of common expectations that all participants meet will
- provide a baseline for trust
- make collaboration more predictable
- ensure that the InCommon Federation’s strategic value to research and education continues to grow
The Baseline Expectations web page includes an overview and question/answer session on the new elements. InCommon will communicate and provide guidance over the next few months.