Identity Management for the LIGO Project

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Abstract:: What identity management challenges does an international organization of scientists face in this age of heightened cybersecurity and user expectations for collaboration in the web and grid spaces? LIGO is an ambitious physics project funded by the NSF which aims to detect gravitational waves from astrophysical sources. Over 600 scientists from around the world must collaborate to build and operate the instruments and then collect, distribute, and analyze the data. We discuss how the LIGO identity management infrastructure grew from its humble beginnings to its current organic state, the use cases and requirements driving the new infrastructure plans and initial deployments, and enumerate the software tools upon which the new infrastructure design is based, with a special focus on Internet2 technologies including Grouper and Shibboleth. We will end with a discussion of the gaps that remain in our design and the needs for which we are still seeking solutions and input from the broader community.

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LIGO Document G1000471-v3