Feide – log-in

Feide – log-in

Feide – joint electronic identity – is the preferred solution for secure identification in the education sector, chosen by the Ministry of Education and Research. With Feide, students and staff have access to a wide variety of services related to research and education using just one username and password. 
Target group: 
Feide can be used by universities, university colleges and research institutions whose Internet service provider is UNINETT (institutions that are connected to the research and education network). In addition, Feide is available to all schools in the Norwegian primary and secondary education. All end users must be affiliated with a home organization that is a Feide participant. 
Conditions: 

All universities, university colleges and research institutions that wish to join Feide must be members of UNINETT. In addition, any home organization implementing Feide must:

•    Establish good procedures for making sure personal information is up to date and consistent.
•    Implement suitable technical solutions for managing personal information. These solutions should simplify and standardize registration and maintenance of personal information.
•    Enter into an agreement with Feide.
Description of the service: 

Feide simplifies the processes for all parties involved using the concept of federated identity management:

•        A user registers only once - namely with his/her so-called home organization to which the user is affiliated.
 This home organization is responsible for maintaining the user related information and provides the user with the credentials. Home organizations can be institutions like universities, university colleges, local and county governments (the school owners) etc.
•        Authentication is always carried out by the user's home organization, which can also provide additional information about the user to the service upon servicess request and user's consent.
 Like this, all Feide-enabled services are available to a user with a single set of credentials. At the same time, there is no need for service providers to register new users, because they get the required information directly from the user's home organization.
•        An access control decision is made by the service based on the retrieved information about the user.
Thus federated identity management is based on the concept that services rely on user authentication at the user's home organization and they obtain from there some information about the user for its authorization decisions.
Feide uses this federated approach to guarantee that each party remains in control of the steps relevant to it:
  1. Home organizations register and authenticate their members
  2. Service providers define their access rules
Feide, on the other hand, operates the central log on components and supports both home organizations and service providers. This means, in practice, that all messages containing information about authentication and user information is sent through Feide. Feide enters contracts with all home organizations and service providers.
For more information about Feide, go to their website.
Costs: 

Feide is funded in part by grants from the Ministry of Education and Research and in part by user fees. More detailed information regarding prices can be found on the Feide website.

Organization of the service: 

UNINETT and the Norwegian Centre for ICT in Education are responsible for the development, operation and distribution of Feide in the university and university college sector, as well as in primary and lower education. A collaborative committee has been established, with two representatives from each of the two partners. The Ministry of Education and Research observes the committee.

Through the efforts of the Feide collaborative committee, the partners strive to make sure Feide remains a secure and unified IdM solution for the sector and work to maintain a long-term perspective. The committee’s objectives are to see to the vision, as well as stability, international harmonization and predictability in Feide’s activities.  
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