What is Shibboleth

A paradigm shift is occurring in identity management philosophy. User-focused identity management is one the emerging and most promising paradigms. One of the fundamental principles of the user-focused identity management frameworks is that the users control their identity formations, revelations, and interactions. This means that users must be given the choice of which identities to use at which services; they have choice to decide what identity information will be disclosed to services and how those services will use their identity information. User-focused identity management frameworks are posed to make users’ online interactions easier and safer. In this chapter, we survey 11 of the most common user-focused identity management frameworks that are emerging, and their associated technologies. First, the chapter discusses issues and challenges with domain-centric identity management paradigm and presents unique value propositions of user-focused frameworks. Secondly, this chapter provides a comprehensive and cohesive coverage of common user-focused identity management frameworks. Users, technologists, businesses; and systems and security managers will gain a comprehensive understanding of the concepts, frameworks and associated technologies relating to user-focused identity management.