Entrust® Secure Identity Management Solution Chosen for US Federal Government Federated Identity Initiative
E-Authentication Program Recognizes Entrust’s On-Going Leadership in Enabling Government On-line Services
03 Aug 2004
DALLAS – Entrust, Inc. [NASDAQ: ENTU], a world leader in securing digital identities and information, today announced that Entrust GetAccess™, a key component of the Entrust® Secure Identity Management Solution, has received approval of the U.S. Federal Government E-Authentication Federation Initiative for use by US Government departments employing e-authentication. This approval builds on Entrust’s long-standing involvement with the initiative and signifies that this solution has met the requirements set by the E-Authentication Interoperability Lab in order to authenticate users of government systems within the E-Authentication architecture.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) E-Authentication Initiative is aimed at providing the necessary federated identity infrastructure to support a common, unified authentication process and streamline access to government on-line resources. Based on industry standards such as SAML, E-Authentication will help government departments and agencies accelerate delivery of on-line services by allowing them to leverage a variety of electronic credential providers.
As a result of this approval, Government departments can use Entrust GetAccess to help control access to sensitive resources and provide an improved online experience to both government employees and citizens. The solution includes seamless support for multiple levels of authentication and can be easily extended to Web Services applications.
As a part of the E-Authentication initiative, GSA has retained Enspier Technologies, a consulting services vendor specializing in government, to lead the E-Authentication Architecture Work Group (AWG) and operate the program’s interoperability lab.
“The Federal Government’s E-Authentication Initiative is a vital step towards establishing trust in the security of information exchanged between various government agencies, as well as between business and government,” said Chris Louden, Chief Technology Officer, Enspier. “Vendor participation and support, such as that demonstrated by Entrust, is absolutely necessary to create and foster a unified standard for this initiative.”
The ability to identify and control access to online resources via policy is the cornerstone of a federated system of trust for citizen-to-government, government-to-business and government-to-government transactions.
The Entrust Secure Identity Management Solution supports a broad set of authentication requirements needed by various government departments and agencies. The Entrust GetAccess software component of this solution provides a policy-driven approach to identity and access management, enabling employees, partners, and citizens to authenticate themselves to a government department and enjoy subsequent single sign-on to resources they are authorized to see across the government’s entire online presence.
“The E-Authentication initiative represents one of the leading applications of federated identity,” said Chris Voice, vice-president, Secure Identity Management, Entrust. “Entrust is pleased to build on its extensive set of credentials in the Government market with the validation of the Secure Identity Management solution and provide departments and agencies with the opportunity to accelerate their on-line offerings.”
Globally, Entrust serves more than 30 foreign governments, including the governments of Canada, Denmark, U.K., Spain, Singapore and France. Within the U.S., Entrust solutions help power the Federal Bridge Certificate Authority (FBCA), a multi-agency information-sharing program that is now "live" and ties together the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Treasury, Department of State, the National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA), and the National Finance Center (USDA-NFC) among others, to securely communicate and share information. Additionally, Entrust serves as the technology provider to six out of the eight individual agencies that have achieved certification under the FBCA.
About the Entrust Secure Identity Management Solution
Entrust GetAccess software is a key component of the Entrust Secure Identity Management solution, providing one of the first commercial implementations of SAML 1.1 for customers. The Entrust Secure Identity Management solution delivers a comprehensive and cost-effective solution for securely managing identities and access for users, applications and devices across client-server, Web and Web service architectures.
About GSA
GSA is a centralized federal procurement, property management, and policy agency, created by Congress to improve government efficiency and help federal agencies better serve the public. It acquires, on behalf of federal agencies, office space, equipment, telecommunications, information technology, supplies and services. It also plays a key role in developing and implementing government-wide policies. GSA’s 13,000 associates provide services and solutions for the office operations of more than one million federal workers located in more than 8,000 government-owned and leased buildings in 2,000 U.S. communities. For more information, please visit: http://www.gsa.gov