The SCI Trust Framework
Introduction
Research and e-Infrastructures recognise that controlling information security is crucial for providing continuous and trustworthy services for the communities. The Security for Collaborating Infrastructures (SCI) working group is a collaborative activity within the Wise Information Security for e-Infrastructures (WISE) trust community. The aim of the SCI trust framework is to enable interoperation of collaborating Infrastructures in managing cross-infrastructure operational security risks. It also builds trust between Infrastructures by adopting policy standards for collaboration especially in cases where identical security policy documents cannot be shared. Governing principles of the SCI framework are incident containment, ascertaining the causes of incidents, identifying affected parties, addressing data protection and risk management and understanding measures required to prevent an incident from reoccurring. The original SCI version 1 Framework was produced in 2013.
The SCI Working Group has produced a second version of the framework, to reflect changes in technology, culture and to improve its relevance to a broad range of infrastructures.
Access the SCI version 2 Framework here
Endorsements
By endorsing this framework the Infrastructures can express and improve their security stance and foster trust among the global peers in facilitating interoperation and availability of services and data for research and their collaborations. Infrastructures endorse the governing principles and approach of SCI, as produced by WISE, as a medium of building trust between infrastructures, to facilitate the exchange of security information in the event of a cross-infrastructure incident, and the collaboration of e-Infrastructures to support the process. These Infrastructures welcome the development of an information security community for the Infrastructures, and underline that the present activities by the research and e-Infrastructures should be continued and reinforced
Endorsements have been received from the following infrastructures; EGI, EUDAT, GEANT, GridPP, HBP, MYREN, PRACE, SURF, WLCG, XSEDE.
Tiziana Ferrari, technical director of the EGI Foundation:
“EGI experience is that collaboration and sharing of the experience is the key to improve security in a distributed environment, and the goal of our participation to WISE is to provide a more secure environment for out users and for the researchers in general.”
Urpo Kaila, Security Officer, and Ralph Niederberger, Deputy Security Officer, of EUDAT:
“EUDAT, as the pan European collaborative data infrastructure, recognizes the immense importance of information security implemented in a trustworthy way among collaborating e-infrastructures.”
Paul Drake, Chief Information and Security Officer, GÉANT:
“As provider of the terabit backbone network for the research and education community GEANT recognises the vital importance of collaboration in security, tools and practices. This initiative demonstrates our commitment to working across e-infrastructures for the benefit of our community.”
David Britton, GridPP project leader:
“We believe the SCIv2 framework is an important milestone in cementing the trust framework that underpins the interoperation of collaborating Infrastructures and the management of cross-infrastructure operational security risks. The output from global collaborative science projects such as the LHC experiments, depends critically on such trust relationships.”
Dr. Florian Berberich, Member of the Board of Directors, PRACE aisbl:
“The big challenges of our world, e.g. climate change, growing population, and energy supply, can be solved only globally involving different disciplines, countries and research infrastructures. In order to ensure a fertile cooperation the contribution of the WISE Security for Collaborating Infrastructures (SCIv2-WG) working group is essential and improves the site and network security of liaising organisations. PRACE welcomes and supports the initiative setup so far and is looking forward to collaborate in the trust framework in the future.”
Erik Huizer, SURFnet’s CTO, on behalf of The Dutch National e-Infrastructure, coordinated by SURF:
“Within research and education cooperation is essential. To enable this, an open and safe infrastructure is needed. The SCI Framework ensures this safety, now and in the future.”
Ian Bird, WLCG project leader:
“The SCI framework has played a key role in defining the collaborative security environment that we rely on in the WLCG. The expansion of this framework by WISE is an evolution that we welcome as we follow the increasing interdependence of infrastructures worldwide.”
John Towns, PI and project director XSEDE:
“As research becomes increasingly an international collaborative effort, while at the same time cyber-security continues to be increasingly challenging, the SCI trust framework is a critical to allow infrastructures to support cross-infrastructure collaborations in manner that enables managing the inherent operational security risks.” said John Towns, PI and project director for XSEDE. “This represents a significant step forward in the distributed collaborative effort required to protect the assets of the infrastructures and the researchers they support.”