Indiana U Extends Central Authentication Service
The Central Authentication Service (CAS) at
Indiana University now includes new identity and access management (IAM)
features such as two-factor authentication, password policy management and
federated identity.
CAS is an open source Web single sign-on system for colleges and
universities. Indiana University collaborated with
Unicon, a provider of CAS services and
support, to develop the new IAM features for the university. Source code for the
features will be contributed back to the CAS community through
Unicon's Open Source Support
program.
One of the new extensions provides two-factor authentication, which requires
a second stage to authenticate a user, in addition to a password. According to
the company, "two-factor authentication enhances the security of the IT
infrastructure by restricting access to resources to only those designated to
have access by the university." Other new features include prompted password
changes and restricted federation access.
CAS was originally developed by Yale University and is now managed by the Apereo Foundation for open source software
for higher education. According to Jacob Farmer, manager of the identify
management systems group at Indiana University, "CAS is a significant part of
[Indiana University's] overall identity and access management infrastructure."
With the contribution of these features back to the CAS open source community,
other universities facing IAM challenges will be able to take advantage of them.
Further information about the Central Authentication Service can be found on
the Apereo Foundation's site.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].