TechKnow Episode 6: How UK ITS safeguards your online identity with IDM

Ever wondered how the University of Kentucky keeps your online identity secure? In this episode of TechKnow, UK Information Technology Services (UK ITS) experts talk about the university’s unique identity management system, or IDM.

Click here to liisten to Episode 6 of TechKnow. 

SAP ERP Security & Support Team Lead Truett Cohorn and ITS Enterprise Systems Associate Director Nick McClure worked together on the IDM project. 

"At its core, identity management is the taking of information about people and giving them access to systems to — from an employee perspective, to do their job or from a student perspective, to be able to get their email and log into canvas and do their coursework," McClure said. 

When looking at existing software that managed online identities of students, employees and applicants, Cohorn said they didn't meet the needs of the university. 

"The integrations from other vendor given software didn't really meet our needs. And so, from HR and the student side we needed something that we weren't creating duplicates on the HR side and the student side." Cohorn said. "So we've got two identities, that's one person, which causes all kinds of issues from provisioning and a good user experience."

In this episode, UK ITS DevOps student employee Evey Wright discusses how she developed Badger, an attendance taking app. By tapping a UK WildCard physical or mobile ID, Badger has streamlined check-ins at UK ITS events. 

"It really speeds up the process as opposed to QR codes," Wright said. "If you've ever been to these student events that use them, it does take (QR codes) a second at first. And for something big like CyberCon, or who knows what it is next, that isn't as efficient."

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