IAM Announcements

WHAT’S CHANGING?

The Identity and Access Management (IAM) team has been working to consolidate authentication 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 provider 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.

The Identity and Access Management Team is re-posting the following communication from the university’s Information Security Office to campus staff.

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Dear Colleagues,

The UT Directory, also known as the University White Pages Directory, now requires login with UT EID and password and Duo for multifactor authentication 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 authentication 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 EID 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

What’s Changing?

In support of the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Strategy produced by the Information Security Office (ISO), Enterprise Authentication and UT Shibboleth will be configured to enforce multi-factor authentication 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.

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