Support Services (SLA J2.4)
(a) Documentation
(b) Workshops and Conferences
(c) Network User Groups
(d) Security, Regulation and Policy
UK federation in Practice: Case Studies from the Community
Members of the community shared their experiences of implementing federated access management at a successful cross-sector event held by the UK federation on 14 October. Seventy two delegates listened to presentations from HE, FE, Schools and service providers that highlighted the different approaches required for each sector. 39% of delegates were from the HE sector, 13% from FE and the rest from sectors including Research, Schools, county councils and commercial providers.
As well as the service provider view, Nicole Harris gave an update on JISC-funded work on identity and federated access management within HE and FE, and Paul Shoesmith presented initiatives by Becta that are reinforcing its commitment to rolling out federated access management in the schools sector. It was also very encouraging to see how schools sector service providers are working to implement and promote federated access management, with Britannica, Just2Easy and EducationCity providing a small exhibition of their federated services.
Video presentations are available on the UK federation website. To be kept up-to-date with information from the UK federation or involved in discussions, readers can sign up to the mailing lists UK Federation Announce and UK Federation Announce Discuss.
JANET CSIRT Security Conference
Sixty nine delegates from the JANET community, 55 being from the HE sector, attended this event in London on 22 October. Topics included general sessions like "A shared approach to information security", "The value of security testing" and "P2P copyright infringement", and there were also product-specific presentations from providers like Netflow and OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project).
Some presentations from the day are available on the JANET website.
Exhibitions attended
JANET(UK) has attended several events and conferences in Scotland this quarter, including the annual members conference of Universities UK, the annual conference of SOCITM, and the Scottish Learning Festival.
(c) Network User Groups
The South East JANET Regional User Group did not meet over the summer.
The SWERN User Group met on 28 October 2009. The meeting heard about the latest service updates from JANET(UK) including plans for regional delivery of the network in the future.
(d) Security, Regulation and Policy [more information]
Over the summer there has been considerable discussion in the UK and elsewhere on how to deal with the illicit use of the Internet to breach copyright. JANET(UK) responded to a consultation launched by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and a subsequent ministerial statement, pointing out the limitations and side-effects of suggested technical 'solutions' and the success that JANET and its customers have had by dealing effectively with complaints of copyright breach. Our comments on proposals have also been sought by the UK and EU film rights-holders' organisations, and we have been working with the Internet Society on a position paper. We were also invited to attend a pre-draft consultation meeting with the Information Commissioner's Office on a Good Practice Guide to personal data online that will be launched for public consultation in December.
Within JANET(UK) discussions on security and regulatory issues have taken place with the new JANET Certificate Service and with the JANET txt services re procurement. Discussions with the JANET Videoconferencing Service and Becta have resulted in a new factsheet on screen-sharing systems that suggests good practice in how to configure and support these types of application. Work has also continued on policies to link the UK Access Management Federation with peer federations in other countries: this was presented at the GN3 Symposium in Vienna and TERENA's REFEDs meeting in Rome.
JANET(UK)'s courses on "Computers, Privacy and Law", "Information Security Policies" (both Manchester) and "Managing IT Security" (Birmingham) were each presented once. Talks on privacy and networks were given at the NorduNET conference in Copenhagen and TERENA's CSIRT Task Force in Tallinn. Other meetings attended included ENISA's Permanent Stakeholders Group, LINX and the Annual General Meeting of the Internet Watch Foundation.
A new blog on JANET(UK)'s activities in the area of regulation has been created and can be found at http://webmedia.company.ja.net/edlabblogs/regulatory-developments/.
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