20061004 DRAFT of PDC end user official communiqué

See attachments tab for Mary Dunker's revision.  Her comments from the e-mail the revsion was sent in follow:Here is another cut. I basically rearranged some of the existing text and took out most of the occurances of "strong" in reference to authentication and encryption. I think the "strong" references in the 1st draft are beyond the scope of that the user needs to absorb at this time, because they have fairly technical definitions. In my opinion, if we want to describe the use of the eToken to provide stong authentication, I think the term "two-factor authentication" would be easier to remember, and belongs in the Aladdin eToken section. I'm still not convinced we need to include that in the e-mail, however.

Thanks for the opportunity to add my $.02-worth.

Mary

See the attachments tab for Susan Brooker-Gross's revision.  Her comments from that e-mail follow:

Do we need more than the attached, and move the rest of the information to the linked info? I'm losing track of what audience is what. Which note is this?

Can we aggregate "software" into one step, even if it's just a page that then has two steps (the middleware and then the trust chain)? It's all software to me...

I would really like to see some accountable signature on this. WHO is really sending it? Who is in charge of the project? A name of a person would go far in creating credibility and trust.

Added attachment with my revisions.

Erv said this e-mail should come from him.

I like Susan's last submissiont. Is it brief and to the point. Ithink it contains a missing word or two, but

the general message is conveyed well.  We could include the details on Mission, etc. at www.pki.vt.edu/pdc (suggested URL)

I still thinks this needs a new introduction. I'm meeting with Jeb Friday morning to approve and after checking with Frank, send this official communique.

Here's a suggested first paragraph, or to be added to the current first paragraph of this communique.

The personal digital certificates project is poised to benefit Virginia Tech in the areas of security and process. IT employees|personnel can, for the first time, digitally sign and approve their official leave report, thus electronically replacing this paper intensive process.

Here's another suggestion for a new opening paragraph.

The personal digital certificates project is poised to benefit Virginia Tech through more efficient and streamlined administrative processes. This initiative directly supports the university strategic plan goal of "Quality and Service" by promoting an efficient administrative culture. IT employees|personnel can, for the first time, digitally sign and approve their official leave report, thus electronically replacing this paper intensive process.

See http://www.president.vt.edu/strategicplan/orgdev.php#quality for reference.

To be more accurate you may want to make the following changes for steps 2 and 3:

2. Download the software you will need by logging into https://www.ita.vt.edu/Apps/WebObjects/NetSoftware, and selecting the appropriate "Aladdin eToken" software.
3. Follow the instructions at http://www.pki.vt.edu/pdc to install the software and and to configure your browsers.

Note the October & November e-mails are archived as attachments.

The one displayed on this page is intended to be sent to NI&S (the December group) on or around December 1, or earlier if they receive their tokens earlier than that.

There seems to be some confusion about the first sentence regarding which leave report we re talking about.

Lee Anne suggested changing it to something like:
"When you enter your November leave starting on December 10, you will now sign your leave report using your digital signature."

Or perhaps (my suggestion):
""When you enter your November leave starting on December 10, you will sign your online leave report with a personal digital certificate (PDC)."
My argument for the above is to keep the PDC theme in there.