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Accessibility Statement

SiteMinder SSO

Office of the Chief Information Officer

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Maintaining data security requires a reliable system to identify users and manage their access to computer systems. The BC Government provides a highly secure Single Sign-On (SSO) service through the use of an industry-standard product known as SiteMinder.

The SiteMinder service integrates with the government’s existing centrally-managed identity providers. Ministries are discouraged from creating new identity sources and should leverage the existing sources wherever possible.

The SiteMinder service provides authentication for the following user types:

  1. IDIR
  2. BCeID
  3. BC Services Card

SiteMinder’s SSO service allows for a single login point for users. This SSO capability allows users to login once to a site or web application with their username and password, and have those same credentials be used to login to any subsequent BC provincial government site or web application that requires credentials without being prompted again.

SiteMinder provides the privacy and security you need when you are responsible for government and client data.

Please note, if you are considering SiteMinder you might also be interested in Keycloak for SSO. Keycloak supports the Open ID Connect (OIDC) and OAuth 2.0 standards, which are widely supported in modern software applications.

Why should I use this

Established

The OCIO SiteMinder service is a widely used, standard SSO integration offering for the BC Government’s user directories (IDIR, BCeID and BC Services Card).

External/Internal User Types

Allows for multiple user types (IDIR, BCeID etc) to login to a single site.

Flexible

SiteMinder supports forms-based, NTLM and SAML integrations.

About this component

Price

Free

Price details

Once configured, there are no ongoing costs to ministries for the use of the SiteMinder service. An internal consulting fee may apply during solution design.

Service level support

As a critical piece of BC Government’s identity infrastructure, SiteMinder services are highly available.

Additional technical information

Use SiteMinder when you want to:
  • Provide single sign-on using established (NTLM, SAML2.0) protocols for Software as a Service (SaaS) and on premises software applications
  • Provide fine-grained site protection. For example, if a site requires protection for internal (IDIR) users to access one directory or resource and external (BCeID, BC Services Card) users to access another resource.
Why should I use the SiteMinder service?
  • The OCIO SiteMinder service is a widely used, standard SSO integration offering for the BC Government’s user directories (IDIR, BCeID and BC Services Card).
  • SiteMinder supports forms-based, NTLM and SAML integrations.
  • Integrates easily with SaaS environments using SAML.
  • Allows for multiple user types (IDIR, BCeID etc) to login to a single site.
  • Supported for both internal and external facing web application access.
  • Reliable and stable service with high availability across datacentres.

Requirements and restrictions

SiteMinder is available for use by BC Government ministries.

Getting started

These services are provided by the Access and Directory Management Services (ADMS) Web Access Management Team (WAM).

SiteMinder requires the installation of a SiteMinder web agent. Clients can install and manage their own SiteMinder Web agents or leverage the OCIO’s Reverse Proxy shared service offering, where the WAM team manages the SiteMinder Web agents for you.

Ministry clients can order this service via iStore.

For this service in particular, the iStore Quick Reference Guide outlines that the specific PI (iStore Location) for you to use is:

Office Solutions -> Office Productivity -> Office Productivity Services -> Consulting -> Service Type: Identity Management -> Consulting -> Request Type: Web Access Management

For additional ordering information, please see the How to Order Services.

The Office of the Chief Information Officer Service Desk is available to assist with ordering, including status of orders, and iStore ordering issues, during regular business hours.

For further information on WAM service details, please refer to our website.

https://ssbc-client.gov.bc.ca/order/istore.htm

Support

The Office of the Chief Information Officer Service Desk is available to assist with ordering, including status of orders, and iStore ordering issues, during regular business hours.