Overview
Which authentication method should I use?#
There are several options for authentication on different EUDAT services provided by CSC. In most cases you should choose the identity and authentication method provided by your home organisation. Most CSC provided EUDAT services have limited access to users affiliated to the customer organisation of that service. If in doubt, consult your home organisation’s research or data support.
Haka is the identity federation of the Finnish universities, universities of applied sciences and research institutions. Users can access federation services using a single user account and password. User identities are provided by the users’ home organizations. Read more about Haka here: https://www.csc.fi/haka-kayttajatunnistusjarjestelma/
Virtu is a convenient and fast single sign-on for browser-enabled systems across organisational boundaries. Virtu is used by Finnish government agencies. The Virtu option is not yet available for CSC EUDAT services, but is under development for some pilot services. Read more about Virtu here: https://wiki.eduuni.fi/display/CSCVIRTU/Virtu/
CSC accounts come in three flavors: ordinary accounts for general use (which you can get with or without Haka or Virtu), student accounts for courses, and machine-to-machine robot accounts for managing services. CSC account -based identification might be an option for those, who do not have other suitable authentication methods. CSC account based authentication is not yet available for CSC EUDAT services, but is under development for some customer services. Please consult your organization’s research support first. Read more about CSC accounts here: https://docs.csc.fi/accounts/how-to-create-new-user-account/
B2ACCESS is a federated cross-infrastructure authorisation and authentication proxy for user identification and community-defined access control enforcement. It allows users to authenticate themselves using a variety of credentials providing federated access and single-sign-on to services and service providers in a trusted way. B2ACCESS is an option for some CSC provided EUDAT services. Read more about B2ACCESS here: https://www.eudat.eu/catalogue/b2access/