The data cache web service is protected using 'http BASIC' security (INTERNET RFC 2617 provides details). Because the transmission of credentials in this mechanism is inherently insecure, TLS (https) is used as the underlying transport mechanism to improve the security.

Users of the service require a username and password. Each user is assigned to a role:

The user "imo" (with the role "Upload") was used as a shared user by all observatories to allow upload of data. This is being replaced by individual user names for each observatory. Please apply to the GIN manager for a username.