IAM Announcements

Below is an archive of all major IAM announcements.

March 26, 2021, Filed Under: Announcements, Authentication

Upcoming changes to InCommon SAML Federation

WHAT’S CHANGING?

The Identity and Access Management (IAM) team has been working to consolidate authenticationAuthentication Verifying the identity of a user, process, or device, often as a prerequisite to allowing access to a system’s resources. services into one service called Enterprise Authentication and subsequently retire UT Shibboleth by August 2021.

The transition for applications directly integrated with UT Shibboleth through the InCommon Federation will not support a phased approach. The IAM team is working with UT System to coordinate a cutover on a pre-determined date, currently scheduled for Thursday, May 27, 2021.

On the day of the cutover, the University of Texas at Austin’s identity providerIdP An Identity Provider (IdP) is a software tool or service that offers user authentication as a service. The Identity Provider (IdP) manages the user's primary authentication credentials and issues assertions derived from those credentials. At UT Austin, the primary IdP used to authenticate the UT EID and EID Password is Enterprise Authentication, which is managed by the IAM Team. in the InCommon Federation will be updated from UT Shibboleth to Enterprise Authentication.

Delays in the propagation of the change may be expected for up to 24 hours. If you manage or utilize an application in the InCommon Federation, you should verify functionality following the cutover.

Additional communications will be sent via distribution list prior to cutover leading up to the May 27, 2021 date. These communications will remind customers of the change and urge them to verify proper service functionality following the change.

IMPACT AND RISK

Applications could experience a brief impact to service availability on Thursday, May 27, 2021 depending on how frequently the application’s metadata is being refreshed. The IAM team anticipates that most applications will be minimally impacted.

WHEN?

This change will take effect on Thursday, May 27, 2021.

ACTION REQUIRED

If your team manages web applications that authenticate using an InCommon Federation integration, you are encouraged to validate login functionality after you receive a confirmation from the IAM team of the completed change on May 27, 2021.

If you experience issues that persist beyond 24 hours post cutover, please reach out to the UT Service Desk.

QUESTIONS?

You may reference the UT Shibboleth to Enterprise Authentication Transition Plan KB article for more information about the UT Shibboleth retirement.

For an overview and general information about InCommon federated identity, please see the InCommon Federation services documentation

If you have any further questions or need technical assistance, please contact the UT Service Desk at 512.475.9400 or help@utexas.edu.

December 14, 2020, Filed Under: Announcements, Directory Services

UT Directory now requires log in with UT EID starting Dec. 14

The Identity and Access Management Team is re-posting the following communication from the university’s Information Security OfficeISO The Information Security Office (ISO) is the university’s information security team. to campus staff.

Dear Colleagues,

The UT Directory, also known as the University White Pages Directory, now requires login with UT EIDUT EID The University of Texas Electronic Identity (UT EID or EID) is the public records identifier for principals at the university. See EID in the service catalog for more information. and password and Duo for multifactor authenticationAuthentication Verifying the identity of a user, process, or device, often as a prerequisite to allowing access to a system’s resources. and is only accessible to members of the university community.

This change is intended to increase security and privacy and combat aggressive data mining from outside organizations for the purpose of socially engineering phishing and vishing scams that target members of the university community. When Duo for multi-factor authenticationMFA Authentication makes use of one or more factors of authentication: something you know (e.g., a password), something you have (e.g., your smartphone), or something you are (e.g., a fingerprint). Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) makes use of two or more factors when authenticating you. was applied to most UT services in May 2020, attempts to phish credentials related to Duo increased with the goal of compromising the user’s account. Visit the ITS project page for more information.

Employees can reference this askUS help article for more information on UT Directory data.

A similar message has been sent to students. Students may contact Texas One Stop for help updating their personal information in the UT Directory.
Any university community member with an EIDUT EID The University of Texas Electronic Identity (UT EID or EID) is the public records identifier for principals at the university. See EID in the service catalog for more information. can find or reset their EID, manage their password, and get other forms of help with their EID by visiting the UT EID Self-Service Tools page.

What is phishing?

The act of sending an email to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft is called “phishing

What is vishing?

Vishing is when you receive a call from someone, either a real person or an automation, encouraging you to take an action or give them sensitive data.
For more information on protecting your data, visit the Information Security Office website, https://security.utexas.edu/

Information Security Office
The University of Texas at Austin
security@utexas.edu
https://security.utexas.edu

November 3, 2020, Filed Under: Announcements, Authentication, UTLogin Release Notes

Deactivation and Retirement of UTLogin

UTLogin’s story is coming to an end. After nearly 18 months, the deployment of Enterprise AuthenticationAuthentication Verifying the identity of a user, process, or device, often as a prerequisite to allowing access to a system’s resources. and the transition of customers from UTLogin to Enterprise Authentication is nearly complete. All remaining customer configurations will be inactivated on November 10 and UTLogin will be turned off on December 14.

On June 14, 2017, the UTLogin Stability Roadmap was published detailing the Identity and Access Management team’s commitment to stabilize authentication for our community. The result was the deployment of and transition to Enterprise Authentication.

We appreciate your continued support as we work to keep the University’s online environment safe, secure, and stable.

November 10: Inactivate remaining UTLogin integrations.
December 14: Turn off UTLogin service.
January 2021: Decommission UTLogin.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please contact the UT Service Desk at 512.475.9400 or help@utexas.edu.

April 28, 2020, Filed Under: Announcements, Authentication, Multi-Factor Authentication

Upcoming changes to Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

What’s Changing?

In support of the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Strategy produced by the Information Security OfficeISO The Information Security Office (ISO) is the university’s information security team. (ISOISO The Information Security Office (ISO) is the university’s information security team.), Enterprise AuthenticationAuthentication Verifying the identity of a user, process, or device, often as a prerequisite to allowing access to a system’s resources. and UT Shibboleth will be configured to enforce multi-factor authenticationMFA Authentication makes use of one or more factors of authentication: something you know (e.g., a password), something you have (e.g., your smartphone), or something you are (e.g., a fingerprint). Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) makes use of two or more factors when authenticating you. for current faculty, current staff, current students, future faculty, and future staff regardless of the resource being accessed on June 15, 2020. The Executive Compliance Committee approved the date and approach on April 15, 2020.

Multi-factor authentication provides an additional level of security when using university online services. Cyber-security attacks are on the rise with 20% more university accounts compromised in 2019 as compared to 2018. Additionally, compromised student and guest accounts have risen 51% since 2018. Forecasting from the university’s ISO predicts this growth will only continue without intervention.

More information can be found on the Campus-Wide MFA Implementation project page.

When?

May 26, 2020 – Canvas and Zoom
June 15, 2020 – All other applications integrated with Enterprise Authentication and UT Shibboleth.

ITSITS Information Technology Services (ITS) will begin communicating broadly to campus end users in mid-May.

Action Required

Application owners should perform analysis and/or testing of their applications to ensure readiness for this change.

If you are an application owner and do not think that your application will be prepared for June 15, you must request a temporary reprieve by submitting an ISO Exception Request.

Questions?

If you are an application owner and would like assistance in testing, please contact mfateam@utlists.utexas.edu.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please contact the Service Desk at 512.475.9400 or help@utexas.edu

October 16, 2019, Filed Under: Announcements, Authentication, Enterprise Authentication Changelog

News from the Transition to Enterprise Authentication Project – October 2019

Enterprise AuthenticationAuthentication Verifying the identity of a user, process, or device, often as a prerequisite to allowing access to a system’s resources. is LIVE

The implementation of the new Enterprise Authentication service is complete, and the service is now live in production.

The Identity and Access Management (IAM) team is now undertaking the first phase of a project to migrate over 800 integrations from UTLogin to Enterprise Authentication. Transition managers are working to schedule customer transitions with the goal to have all UTLogin transitions complete by the end of 2020 and retire UTLogin in December 2020. The transition focus will then shift to transitioning UT Shibboleth customers.

Ready to Integrate with Enterprise Authentication?

If you are an existing UTLogin customer and have not been contacted by a transition manager, please reach out to the team by emailing iam-integrations@utlists.utexas.edu .

New IAM authentication customers can find information about the integration process and initiate a new integration by visiting https://iamservices.utexas.edu/integration/.

All customers are welcome to visit the Enterprise Authentication ServiceNow page to find more information including answers to frequently asked questions.

Resources

Want to know more about Enterprise Authentication? Visit the Enterprise Authentication ServiceNow page and/or review some of these commonly asked-about topics:

You may also be interested in our other ServiceNow Knowledge Articles.

Connect with the Enterprise Authentication Team

For questions or comments, send an email to entauthn@utlists.utexas.edu.