Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
By Albert Wu, InCommon Federation Manager, Internet2 Trust & Identity
I am pleased to announce an InCommon Federation community consultation of the 2024 InCommon Federation Proxies Working Group Report. This consultation is open through February 28, 2025 at 5 p.m. PDT. (You’ll need to sign into the Internet2 wiki to post your feedback, and we hope you will.)
Our Scope
The Federation Proxies Working Group has been working to further their understanding of proxies currently deployed in the InCommon Trust Federation and propose recommendations for deployments going forward. Federation proxies (FPs) are a complex topic as they are active elements in the middle of the exchange of identity information between entities (identity providers and service providers), thereby having the ability to observe and modify that information. While this collection of “proxied” entities should have autonomy for their internal operation, it falls to the FP operator, as these entities’ representative, to uphold federation policy in situations involving the federation. The working group’s report is a first step towards addressing this and other important issues regarding FPs.
A Forum for Your Feedback
This report contains the group’s findings regarding federation proxies’ roles and trust impact in the federation ecosystem. It also recommends next steps for the InCommon Federation and the wider community to better support proxies and improve federation trust. You’ll find the report here: 2024 InCommon Federation Proxies Working Group Report.
This consultation is open through February 28, 2025 at 5 p.m. PDT. You’ll find the proposed materials, as well as a feedback log here. Please sign into the Internet2 wiki to post your feedback. We look forward to receiving it.
About the InCommon Federation
The InCommon Federation provides secure single sign-on access to cloud and local services, and global collaboration tools. It connects millions of users and hundreds of educational institutions, research organizations, and commercial resource providers. The InCommon Federation and its practices are governed and built by an open community to meet the specific needs of higher education, research organizations, and their corporate partners: we value individual’s right to privacy; we believe in open, transparent, and equal sharing of information and knowledge; we encourage the ubiquitous adoption of online digital resources to accelerate research and discovery.