In 2006, the first production versions of the Signet Privilege Management System and the Grouper Group Management Toolkit were released. Developed with the encouragement and support of the Internet2 Middleware Initiative, Signet and Grouper make it easier to manage access to protected online resources by providing research and academic institutions the critical software and tools needed to support enhanced institution-wide, role- and permission-based authorization for appropriate access to resources.
The Signet Privilege Management System provides organizations an easy-to-use framework for managing user access privileges in terms familiar to business managers and provides a consolidated, shared authorization data repository that is independent of any specific organizational system. The Grouper Group Management Toolkit enables both automated and manual mechanisms for assigning users to groups based on their individual campus affiliations, status, or other relevant roles. Grouper and Signet can be used together or alone, and enable a distributed model for control so that those responsible for assigning or delegating user access privileges can directly manage them to meet their needs across campus systems.
Internet2 universities are already implementing Signet and Grouper on their campuses. In addition to the benefit of having a common management service for distributed control of user access across a variety of systems, Grouper and Signet facilitate greater accountability and policy compliance by providing a consistent application of authority rules and synchronization of authority data across systems. These tools vastly simplify how community members and visiting students gain appropriate access to campus services. Business heads and auditors alike benefit from a transparent and comprehensive view of activity across IT systems.
Development of Signet and Grouper was supported with funding from Stanford University and the University of Chicago, and the University of Bristol, respectively. Both were developed with additional support from Internet2, the National Science Foundation Middleware Initiative (NMI), and the Joint Information System Committee (JISC).