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PKI Buy vs. Build Decision at UW-Madison

Presented by Nicholas Davis

PKI Project Leader

UW—Madison, Division of Information Technology

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Overview

• Brief history of PKI at UW-Madison• UW-Madison IT environment• PKI requirements gathering effort• Comparison of benefits of buy vs. build in

our environment• Our experience so far• Integration with existing systems• Critical success factors• Future considerations• What we have learned

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History of PKI at UW-Madison

• October 2000 Internet2 Public Key Infrastructure Lab established at UW-Madison.

• 2002 Provided certificates to Shibboleth testing community

• 2004 Campus requirements gathering initiative

• Spring 2005 RFI review• August 2005 Geotrust selected

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UW-Madison IT Environment

• Serving a universe of 50,000

• Faculty, Staff, Students

• Highly decentralized

• Public institution

• Research driven environment

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Why the UW-Madison is interested in PKI

• Threat of identity theft (strong 2-factor authentication)

• More university businesses conducted via web / extranets through open community, across organizations

• Privacy of information (encryption)

• Authenticated communication (signing)

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UW-Madison Critical Solution Attributes

• Ease of management

• Ready integration into existing systems

• Ease of adoption by end users

• Scalability, flexibility, cost of ownership, accreditations…

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Core Requirements

• Automated certificate delivery • Used for encryption, digital signing and

potentially authentication• Off site key escrow• Transparency to end user• Global trust• Implementation within 6 months• Minimum “lock in” commitment• Time, Cost, Features, Quality

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PKI Models and Systems Under Consideration

• In House (Commercial and Open Source)• Co-managed

• Verisign -- Commercial -- Co-managed• Entrust -- Commercial -- In house• Geotrust -- Commercial -- Co-managed• RSA -- Commercial -- In house• Open Source -- Non-Commercial -- In House

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Time to ImplementIn House – Open Source

• To develop our desired feature set would require 2 full time programmers for 12 months

• Cost of establishing sandbox, QA and production environments

• Hardware acquisition: secure cage, network equipment, Certificate Authority, Registration Authority

• CP and CPS statements would need to be written and reviewed by DoIT management and UW Legal

• Estimated time to implement: 12 months

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Time to ImplementIn house – Commercial

• 1 FTE would be needed to act as Administrator• Need to establish sandbox, and QA

environments.• Design logical and physical security

infrastructure for secure CA and offsite key escrow

• Purchase hardware, install software• Develop policy, CP and CPS

• Estimated time to implement: 9 months

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Time to implementCo-managed

• 1 FTE would be needed to act as Administrator• Upon completion of purchase contract, system

would be immediately ready• No need to establish sandbox, and QA

environments.

• Estimated time to implement: 4 weeks

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Building Open SourceCosts

Year 1 system costs5000 users ~$50,0002 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$200,000Total Year 1 costs: ~$250,000

Year 2 and beyond (annual costs)5000 users ~$02 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$200,000 Total annual costs ~$200,000

10 year cost ~$2,050,000

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Building CommercialCosts

Year 1 system costs5000 users ~$200,0001 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$100,000Total Year 1 costs: ~$300,000

Year 2 and beyond ($40,000 maint.)5000 users ~$01 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$100,000Upgrades and maintenance ~$5000 Total annual costs ~$145,000

10 year cost ~$1,605,000

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Co-managed Costs

Year 1 System costs5000 users ~$43,0001 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$100,000 Total yearly costs = ~$143,000

Year 2 and beyond (annual contract)5000 users ~$43,0001 FTE (salary and benefits) ~$100,000 Total annual cost $143,000

10 year cost ~$1,430,000

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Annual Cost Summary

• 1 year

• 10 year

• There is no free lunch, even with open source

• The price of entry for infrastructure can be cost prohibitive and a major sticking point for organizational commitment

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Feature Set – No Trusted Root With Open Source

Unsigned Root means distrust both within

and outside our core universe

Who are you serving? Internal customers?

External customers? Both?

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Benefits of co-managed solution

Seamless trust let’s us play globally via

The Equifax Secure eBusiness CA1

Logistical, financial and political issues with

Building true off site key escrow

Keys are securely kept offsite

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Benefits of co-managed solution (continued)

All the user needs is a web browser in order

to get theircertificate

Quality co-managed PKI systems are

constantly monitored, patched, upgraded

and backed up at a remote location

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Our experience so far

Customers appreciate:• Automated certificate delivery• Trusted Root• Key EscrowUses:• Using certificates for digital signing• Using certificates for encrypted email• Digital signing of mass email to campus

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Integration With Existing Systems

• Easily scalable – Load users in CSV format in batch

• Public keys are exportable to LDAP and University White Pages

• CRL is automated via True Credentials system

• Third party software available for high assurance server authentication

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Critical Success Factors

• A focus on the customer requirements is of pinnacle importance

• Financial lifecycle modeling for both short and long term

• Being careful not to reinvent the wheel simply for the sake of pride

• Top down support from the CIO’s office

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Summary of Benefits

• Lower upfront fixed costs• Lower 10 year costs• Faster road to implementation• Trusted Root• Off Site Key Escrow• Automated certificate delivery• UW-Madison common look and feel• No long term lock in

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Future Considerations

• The beneficial cost argument may change if our user population grows dramatically

• Widespread adoption of the Higher Education Bridge CA (HEBCA) may alter our reliance on a commercial pre-installed root

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What We Have Learned

• Don’t let your pride dictate your choice of PKI model

• Focus effort on things which have not already been done and on providing utility to the end user, not on where your CA hardware is located

• A certificate is a certificate

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What We Have Learned(continued)

• The key to success in a decentralized environment lies in motivating your users, not obligating your users

• Whether you choose to build or buy, remember to keep it simple for the customers

• Don’t spend time on duplication of effort

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What We Have Learned(continued)

• What matters most is what your organization does with the certificate once it is issued

• The challenge of implementing PKI is 30% technical and 70% user education, marketing and acceptance

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Questions, Comments

Contact information:

Nicholas Davis

University of Wisconsin—Madison

Division of Information Technology

Email: ndavis1@wisc.edu

Telephone: 608-262-3837