News for and about the Internet2 community

[Todd Sedmak <>]

Virginia Tech First To Reach Certified Online Trust Standards
University qualifies for Internet2’s bronze and silver InCommon assurance 
program

Blacksburg, Va. and Ann Arbor, Mich.—Oct. 16, 2012—Virginia Tech is the first 
university in the country to become a certified provider of greater assurance 
to online resource providers — federal agencies, universities, nonprofit 
organizations, and private companies alike — of the identity of those seeking 
access to financial and other sensitive information.

The university has qualified for Internet2’s InCommon Bronze and Silver 
Identity Assurance program. Internet2, a nonprofit higher education 
consortium, administers the certification program as part of its mission to 
provide secure and privacy-preserving trust services for its participants. 
Internet2 operates the InCommon identity federation, which allows individuals 
to use one user ID and password (also called credentials) to access protected 
online resources — both internal and external to their home institution.

Internet2’s InCommon Assurance Program allows campuses to certify that, for 
those using more-sensitive services, there is a stronger process for issuing 
credentials and granting access. There are two levels of this process — 
called Bronze and Silver. Bronze, comparable to the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology Assurance 1 level, has security that slightly 
exceeds the confidence associated with a common Internet identity. Silver, 
comparable to NIST’s level of Assurance 2, has security appropriate for 
financial transactions. Resources likely to become among the first to require 
Silver include those providing online grant administration or financial aid 
administration. 

“Meeting the standards of the InCommon Identity Assurance program enhances 
security by helping to ensure that access to a resource is granted to, and 
only to, the intended individual,” said Mary Dunker, director of Secure 
Information Technology Initiatives at Virginia Tech. “In addition to enabling 
authorized Virginia Tech users to access applications that require InCommon 
Silver credentials, achieving this certification further strengthened the 
university’s identity management processes and technology infrastructure. Now 
we have a greater trust in the identities of those individuals who use 
InCommon Silver and Bronze credentials for internal university applications.”

“I applaud Virginia Tech for their pioneering effort,” said Jack Suess, chair 
of the InCommon Steering Committee and vice president and chief information 
officer at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. “They have not only 
become the first to meet these more-stringent standards, but have also helped 
us to refine the certification process. Given that some federal agencies plan 
to require InCommon Silver for certain applications, this will become more 
and more important for research universities and organizations.”

About Internet2 and InCommon

Internet2 is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the 
nation's leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a 
collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to 
solve common technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in 
support of their educational, research, and community service missions. For 
more information, visit www.internet2.edu.

InCommon, operated by Internet2, serves the U.S. education and research 
communities, supporting a common framework of trust services, including the 
U.S. identity management trust federation for research and education, a 
community-driven Certificate Service, and a multifactor authentication 
program. The InCommon Federation enables scalable, trusted collaborations 
among its community of participants. The Certificate Service offers unlimited 
certificates to the U.S. higher education community for one fixed annual fee. 
InCommon has more than 450 participants serving 6 million faculty, students, 
and staff at higher education institutions and research organizations, as 
well as their sponsored partners. For more information, see www.incommon.org.

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