Number 4 2004 • EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY 13 The Fifth Annual Educause Current Issues Survey1 ranked “security and identity management” near the top of the list of critical IT challenges on campus today. Recognition of the crucial importance of securing networked resources led Internet2 to establish its Middleware Initiative (I2MI) in 1999. While Internet2 was founded to develop and deploy advanced network technologies and applications, it was clear from the start that high-speed networks would simply provide a quicker path to abuse unless improved methods of managing and controlling access to resources were developed and deployed along with those networks. I2MI has brought together campus middleware architects to work on fundamental issues in authentication, authorization, and directory services to make secure inter-institutional services possible and practical. The most innovative I2MI effort to date is the Shibboleth Project.2 Its primary product, the Shibboleth System, supports secure user access to Webbased resources; enables independent organizations to federate to extend the capabilities of their existing identity-management services; supports multi-organizational federations to enable scalable use of the technology; encourages attribute-based authorization; provides controls to protect the privacy of personal information; Federated Security: The Shibboleth Approach