Announcements
February 14, 2024
Update on Sign in Canada
This message is to update our customers on our plans for 2024, which includes transitioning from SIC v1 to GC Sign In.
On July 31, 2023, the Sign in Canada (SIC) service entered a maintenance phase which means that we have stopped active development and implementation of new features, including application patches and updates. Please note that operating system security patches may be provided for critical vulnerabilities. This decision was made because work is underway to procure and implement an enterprise-wide Government of Canada Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) solution.
Existing SIC customers will migrate to the new CIAM solution following its procurement, testing and deployment. We will provide additional details on the CIAM procurement status and migration plans when more specific information becomes available. The CIAM Software as a Service (SaaS) contract is expected to be awarded in Spring 2024.
The TBS Digital Credentials team recommends that any new customers who require enterprise authentication services and support use the Shared Services Canada (SSC) Government of Canada Credential Federation (GCCF) consolidator service. This will be the approach until the enterprise CIAM solution is fully implemented. For more information about the GCCF consolidator service, please contact the SSC External Credential Management (ECM) team.
As the SIC support team has lost key consulting resources and is concurrently engaged in the CIAM procurement, the team’s ability to handle service requests and incidents has been reduced. Consequently, delays and extended turnaround times are likely.
In recognition of this reduced level of service, our team is actively looking at how to transfer as many cost savings as possible to existing clients as we look to renew Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
If you have any questions, concerns, or require further details about the CIAM, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the team via the Sign In Canada mailbox.
August 8, 2023
Impact of SSC MFAaaS 3.0 on Sign In Canada Clients
The External Credential Management (ECM) team at Shared Services Canada (SSC) rolled out Multifactor Authentication as a Service 3.0 (MFAaaS 3.0) for the Government of Canada Credential Federation (GCCF) consolidator service on July 31st, 2023.
As part of this rollout, all GCCF Relying Parties (RPs) were migrated to the MFAaaS 3.0 platform, unless they opted out of the platform by following a pre-defined process.
The Sign In Canada (SIC) service utilizes the SSC Multifactor Authentication as a Service 2.0 (MFAaaS 2.0) platform to provide Time-Based One-Time Password (TOTP) Multifactor Authentication (MFA) to SIC clients who have MFA enabled for their service(s).
As a result, Sign In Canada has opted out of the SSC MFAaaS 3.0 platform and will continue to utilize the MFAaaS 2.0 platform. Any RPs integrated with SIC using MFA will continue to use the existing MFA option. There will be no impact to, or action required by SIC clients.
If clients would like to leverage the MFAaaS 3.0 platform, they would need to move to the SSC GCCF consolidator. Please contact the SSC ECM mailbox or visit the ECM GCpedia page for additional information on the GGCF consolidator or MFAaaS 3.0 services.
The new Enterprise Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) Software as a Service (SaaS) solution being procured to replace SIC will provide additional MFA options in the future. If you would like to keep informed on the progress of the CIAM project, please reach out to the Sign In Canada mailbox.
July 31st, 2023
Sign In Canada maintenance phase
In order to ensure prioritization of an enterprise Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, the Sign In Canada (SIC) service is entering a maintenance phase. As a result, there will be no new enhancements to or integrations with the SIC Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
The service will continue to operate with current support levels for existing integrations and clients. Any updates will be limited to bug fixes and security patches. This means that no new applications will be onboarded to the SIC MVP.
All prospective customers will need to leverage the Shared Services Canada (SSC) Government of Canada Credential Federation (GCCF) consolidator service until the enterprise CIAM solution is in place. The CIAM SaaS contract is targeted to be awarded in spring of 2024 with departmental specific solutions planned to be integrated afterwards.
Existing SIC clients will be migrated onto the new CIAM solution once it has been procured and deployed. Please rest assured that we will provide additional details on the status of the CIAM procurement along with migration plans when more specific information is available.
Please contact the SSC External Credential Management (ECM) mailbox (ecm-gje@ssc-spc.gc.ca) for additional information about the GCCF consolidator service.
If you have any questions or concerns, or would like additional information about the CIAM procurement, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Sign In Canada mailbox.