The collection of systems and services associated with specific on-line resources or services that together decide whether to grant a given individual access to those resources or services.

The identity information provided by an Identity Provider to a Service Provider.

A single piece of information associated with an electronic identity database record. Some attributes are general; others are personal. Some subset of all attributes defines a unique individual. Examples of an attribute are name, phone number, and group affiliation.

A mechanism for associating specific attributes with a user.

The Shibboleth software service that asserts the requesting individual's attributes by creating an attribute assertion and then digitally signing it. The receiving online Service Provider must be able to validate this signature.

The distinguished name of the Attribute Authority.

The Internet address of the Attribute Authority.

Rules that an AA follows when deciding whether or not to release an attribute and its value(s)

An independent review and examination of a system's records and activities to determine the adequacy of system controls, ensure compliance with established security policy and procedures, detect breaches in security services, and recommend any changes that are indicated for countermeasures.

The security measure by which a person transmits and validates his or her association with an electronic identifier. An example of authentication is submitting a password that is associated with a user account name.