What is Digital Identity?

Digital Identity is the collection of data attributes which describe an individual. These attributes determine the data, systems, applications and services that the individual can access at the University.

Why is Digital Identity important?

Proactively managing digital identities provides staff and students with access to the tools and services they need in order to work and\or study, while ensuring that access is revoked in a timely manner, when it is no longer needed or authorised.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) raised an alert in 2021 that the UK education sector is at high risk from ransomware attacks. Therefore, it is crucial the University prioritises security to protect the institution.

What is Identity and Access Management?

Identity and Access Management (IDAM) is a framework of processes, policies and technologies that enable an organisation to identify and secure employee, customer and visitor access to their systems.

The University’s Identity & Access Management Project

The primary goal of our project is ensuring that only the right people have access to the right systems and applications at the right time. We are implementing a modern technology solution so that the insecure and unsupported legacy technology, LURCIS (Leeds University Registry and Certificate Issuing System), can be switched off.

This project will bring several benefits to the University’s current identity and access management processes including:

• Improved User Experience: Our project aims to improve the user journey - from a student or staff member joining the University, changing roles or identity information, to leaving the University. This will be achieved by introducing new processes that are fit for business purpose, and new technology that will automate these, which in turn will reduce the wait time and simplify the experience for users.
• Improved Security: We have established a new, simpler process for requesting non-staff / non-student accounts which minimises manual processing and risk of human error. The project will also introduce measures to disable accounts that are no longer in use and, therefore, prevent an unauthorised individual gaining extended access to University systems.

Application Integration Functionality

The IDAM solution will be integrated with university applications and this project activity is known as ‘application onboarding’. There are two types of integration that the new IDAM solution could have with the downstream applications. These can be defined as:

• Access Governance: Applications that are integrated with SailPoint IdentityNow with access governance functionality means that this is a read-only connection. The purpose of this is for the IDAM solution to have a holistic view of someone's access. With this type of integration, the new IDAM solution cannot provide a user with or remove a user’s account.
• Birthright Provisioning: If an application has been integrated with SailPoint IdentityNow with birthright provisioning functionality, this means that not only will the IDAM solution read and host a holistic view of a user’s access, but it will create, manage and disable a user’s access to that application.

What are the project timelines?

Please check the Identity and Access Management Project Updates article (KB0017151) in the Related Articles section for more information on what we are delivering and when.