The Swiss E-ID, the European Union’s eID – and the link to Switch edu-ID and eduGAIN

The E-ID of Switzerland is currently being shaped and formed with interested parties contributing to this process on the community platform of the Swiss federal authorities. As research and education are border-less Switch took a stand to point out the importance of the E-ID to stay in line with international developments. Particularly relevant is the emerging eID of the EU and the Trust Services of EBSI (European Blockchain Services Infrastructure) as a potential trust pillar underpinning it.

But where does our identity solution Switch edu-ID together with its international extension eduGAIN of GÉANT fit into this picture, if at all? Continue reading “The Swiss E-ID, the European Union’s eID – and the link to Switch edu-ID and eduGAIN”

Switch edu-ID launches Passwordless Login with Passkeys

We all know the problem well enough: using passwords is tedious and insecure. With Passkey, however, an alternative has been created with which Internet users can not only log in more easily, but also more securely. Switch is therefore extremely pleased to announce the immediate support of Passkey in Switch edu-ID.

Continue reading “Switch edu-ID launches Passwordless Login with Passkeys”

Two-Step Login Changes

An increasing number of services and universities require edu-ID users to verify their identity with an additional factor in a process called Two-Step Login or Two-Factor Authentication.

One year ago, about 5% of all users had enabled this secure login method. As of today, this number has tripled to 15% of all 930’000 edu-ID users.

This is great news from a security point of view and has led to the following two changes that were introduced end of August 2023.

Continue reading “Two-Step Login Changes”

First step towards passwordless login: Username first!

A lot of identity providers, including Google, Microsoft and Apple, ask the users for their username first, and then proceed to the password input in a follow-up step – if at all! The future world will be passwordless. So it won’t make sense to gather any password in the future.

The edu-ID login has caught up to get ready for a passwordless world. As of 9 August 2023, the edu-ID login window has changed so that users first need to enter their e-mail address. In a next step, they enter their password.

This is an important change to support Passkeys for the edu-ID login in the near future. Users having Passkeys enabled will enter their username and then log in with their Passkeys instead of their password. That is, the edu-ID login first needs to know the user in order to decide which login method is the user’s preferred one.

We are sure that edu-ID users will embrace this new process as most of them are already familiar with it from other identity providers.

 

New simplified edu-ID integration for organizations available now

The integration of the edu-ID previously required the implementation of two small software components on the university side:

    1. the linking service with which the edu-ID account of a person is linked to the internal account at the university,
    2. and the attribute synchronization with which the university manages the affiliations in the edu-ID accounts.

A new integration method is now available that does not require the development and operation of software at the university. Continue reading “New simplified edu-ID integration for organizations available now”

700’000 reasons to celebrate

Just in time for the yearly Trust and Identity Workgroup meeting the barrier was broken mid May. To celebrate the 700’000th edu-ID user account the trust and identity team had, however, to wait a few more weeks, because several team members were on vacation at that time. But it’s never too late for cake 😀

We hope to soon celebrate the cake for 800’000 accounts when University of Zurich, ETHZ, EPFL and other universities adopt edu-ID in the coming months.

Trust & Identity Meeting 2022

SWITCH invites you on Wednesday 18. May 2022 to the Trust & Identity Meeting 2022, held as a hybrid meeting, on premise in Zurich as well as online.

Registration is open until Monday, 16. May 2022.
There you will find as well the draft agenda and meeting topics.

Details (links etc.) will be provided 48 hours in advance to registered participants.

The event is aimed at the following target groups:

  • IdP, SP and RP Administrators
  • Home Org Administrators
  • RRA & Attribute Policy Administrators
  • IdP hosting customers and
  • IT staff with interest in PKI, eduroam, authentication and authorization

for both – Swiss universities that already adopted SWITCH edu-ID and the ones that haven’t yet.

The life of an edu-ID account

Lifelong learning benefits from lifelong user accounts. SWITCH edu-ID accounts are such lifelong user accounts. However, lifelong sometimes does not mean forever, which may be a surprise in this context. Why is that so?
Due to data privacy laws a life long account is – like a lifelong prison sentence – not for all eternity. At some point an account is deleted or archived even though its owner is still alive and well.

Continue reading “The life of an edu-ID account”

SWITCH edu-ID continues to grow

Last week the 600’000th member of the Swiss academic community registered for a SWITCH edu-ID account.

SWITCH is pleased to see an increased adoption of this service, as currently more than 1000 accounts are opened up per day.

Of course, this fact was again a good reason for a short break at the SWITCH offices, with a tasty cake once more.

 

 

Swiss E-ID, take two – SWITCH takes a stand

After a surprisingly clear defeat of the e-ID proposal in the national referendum early March 2021, the federal administration presented plans for a new attempt a month ago with a discussion paper on the target vision for an e-ID (DE, FR).

SWITCH is taking a stand and handed in a position statement end of September 2021 on this discussion paper in German: Stellungnahme SWITCH Zielbild E-ID final_sig.

Continue reading “Swiss E-ID, take two – SWITCH takes a stand”