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The Unique Challenges of Rolling Out a PKI in the U.W. Academic Environment

The Unique Challenges of Rolling Out a PKI in the U.W. Academic Environment. Nicholas A. Davis. Overview. Eric Norman spoke about how the U.W. has protected its top level Root CA.

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The Unique Challenges of Rolling Out a PKI in the U.W. Academic Environment

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  1. The Unique Challenges of Rolling Out a PKI in the U.W. Academic Environment Nicholas A. Davis

  2. Overview • Eric Norman spoke about how the U.W. has protected its top level Root CA. • Nick will speak about the challenges associated with bringing production quality PKI functionality to the U.W. academic environment.

  3. Agenda • Nick’s background with PKI and associated Public Key technologies. • The U.W. end user environment • The Requirements gathering process • The specific PKI issues we are facing at the U.W. • Our goals • Q&A

  4. Nick’s Background with PKI • Spent the last 3 years as the PKI Administrator, E-Business Server (McAfee PGP) Administrator, and Remote User Authentication Administrator at American Family Insurance • Very familiar with Entrust • Managed the PKI needs of 6000 corporate users • Joined U.W. Division of Information Technology in April 2004 as PKI Program Manager

  5. The U.W. End User Environment • OS Environment at the U.W. is the opposite of my corporate experience. To use the term “varied” is an understatement. Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP and of course, a smattering of Windows 3.1, Macintosh of all flavors, Linux, OS/2, Free BSD, and others • Administration is highly decentralized. • User skill level is highly varied • User degree of devotion to their OS and associated applications fills the entire spectrum from passive to fanatical

  6. The Requirements Gathering Process • Why bother with requirements gathering? • “The customer knows best” • Helps to educate our potential user community. • Gives them a sense of having true involvement with the end product • Gives us clear, stated milestones to assist us in rolling out our PKI • Last but not least, helps to settle internal PKI team debate

  7. The Requirements Gathering Process (Continued) • Our requirements gathering process is made of: • Education • “Advertising” the virtues of PKI to the user community • Soliciting input from our “customers” in the form of both closed and open ended questions • Formulating a results “summary” and “next steps” document for management consideration

  8. The Specific PKI Issues We Are Facing at the U.W. • “To sign or not to sign?” – that is the first question • Will we focus on server certificates, user certificates, or both? • What will the certificates be used for? Authentication, Signing, Encryption, VPN, securing websites? • Who do the end user certificates belong to? • Will we perform Private Key Escrow? • How will the system be administered and how will end user needs be managed? • What Operating Systems and Applications will we support?

  9. Our Goals • Most importantly, a PKI which is endorsed by users on campus, widely used and meets end user needs. • In order to meet these goals, the PKI MUST be: • Secure, at least to industry standards • Manageable • Compatible with the needs and desires of end users • Flexible • At a tolerable dollar cost for the U.W.

  10. All questions and suggestions are welcome! Thank You! Nicholas A. Davis ndavis1@wisc.edu

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