The Identity and Access Management (IAM) team at Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT) is pleased to announce that beginning July 9, 2014, all Persons of Interest (POIs) new to Harvard will be issued Harvard ID (HUID) numbers using the IDGen system. IDGen has a built-in matching algorithm that greatly reduces the incidence of duplicates, while the previous method of issuing POI-specific Harvard ID numbers that begin with a leading zero lacked a programmatic check for potential identity matches. While this may seem on the surface to be a minor change, this adjustment to how HUIDs are assigned to contractors, vendors, tenants of Harvard-owned property, and other sponsored Harvard affiliates is a significant development in the IAM program’s ongoing effort to simplify user experience while increasing the overall security of IAM systems.
For those in POI roles, moving to IDGen assignation of HUIDs means that, because they are given permanent ID numbers from the onset, these individuals will never need to worry about transitioning from one number to another when switching roles or moving to permanent positions – saving them the disruption to email, calendaring, asset access, and other privileges that go hand-in-hand with changing IDs.
For those working in ID Services functions, the switch eliminates the need to maintain lists of available leading-zero numbers or make time-consuming efforts to manually search for duplicate IDs when on-boarding new POIs. MIDAS will perform an IDGen number lookup for each new POI, as well as attempt to match the new POI’s basic personal information against an existing identity database – thereby significantly reducing the issuance of duplicate IDs. (For the sake of avoiding unnecessary disruption to current affiliates, it will continue to be possible to extend dates for existing POI roles already issued a leading-zero Harvard ID number, but this policy will be revisited at a future date.)
Through providing new POIs with IDGen-assigned HUIDs, we are moving the Harvard Community closer to our goal of “one ID for life” - a standard that is key not only to the convenience and continuity of user experience, but also the security and robustness of our identity database as a whole. Please join us in thanking all on the IAM team who have made this milestone possible!
For more information on the work of the IAM group, please visit the Identity and Access Management website.