The NetBadge software is changing the way students and faculty utilize University Web services, requiring users to submit their computing I.D. and password only once per session. This step eliminates multiple login requests and allows departments within the University to put up secure Web pages with greater ease, said Jim Jokl, director of communications and systems with ITC.
NetBadge allows students and other users to stay logged into services such as Webmail for periods of up to eight hours without having to resubmit their information. It allows users to access other secure University Web programs such as the Home Directory and Web Corporate without submitting their computing information. This allows for a smoother negotiation of the University Web site, and the login screen will not become overburdened, Jokl said.
"It's a better system for [ITC] and the user," he said.
In previous years, individual departments within the University were not able to put up secure sites utilizing the previous authentication system, UVaAuth.
"They can now use [NetBadge] and not have to worry about creating a separate set of passwords," Jokl said.
Although intended to streamline the usage of secure pages, NetBadge was not implemented in response to the recent identity theft scare and does not provide a greater degree of protection than the previous system, Jokl said.
NetBadge "is fairly neutral when it comes to the issue of identity theft," he said.
To be completely logged off of NetBadge, the user has to close his or her entire browser window, a fact some students said they have found inconvenient.
"I have to shut the browser and open it again, and I am way too lazy to do that," third-year College student Diana Cole said.
The program may have streamlined access to secure University sites, but many users said they do not know how to use NetBadge properly.
"It's a good source, but if no one knows how to use it, it's useless," third-year College student Travis Hartberger said. "People develop new programs, and the developer fails to inform the public that there is something for them to take advantage of."
NetBadge is the University's version of Pubcookie, a program developed at the University of Washington that utilizes cookies to identify users when they enter a certain site, Jokl said.
"Cookies" are small bits of data a site can transfer to a browser, and the browser can retransmit to that same site when the user returns to that page. NetBadge uses "session cookies" or bits of information that are not stored after the browser has been closed, hence the need to close the browser to log out of NetBadge, Jokl said.
The implementation of NetBadge at the University has been in the works since June of 2002.
"We've been working on getting this done for quite a while," Jokl said.
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