USDA’s National Finance Center Named as Certified Provider of Public Key Infrastructure Services for the Federal Government
Public-Private Initiative Between National Finance Center and Entrust to Enable Agency-to-Agency Technology Service Offerings
10 Aug 2004
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Entrust, Inc. [NASDAQ: ENTU], a world-leading provider of Identity and Access Management solutions, today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Finance Center (NFC), which uses Entrust products, has been officially named a certified provider of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services for the federal government after meeting the requirements of the Federal Identity Credentialing Committee (FICC). The NFC`s Entrust software-based offering is the only public-private collaboration to be certified by the FICC.
“Working with Entrust, the National Finance Center takes great pride in achieving this official certification,” said Randy Speed, NFC PKI Program Manager. “Through cooperation and a blend of unique technological talents, we are well positioned to provide a host of innovative new PKI services to other agencies throughout the federal government. This collaboration has opened the door to allow agency-to-agency technology and services offerings never imagined, but that can help speed proliferation of e-government initiatives, garnering enormous potential cost efficiencies and benefits to citizens and enterprises.”
All required documentation was submitted and approved by the Shared Service Provider (SSP) Subcommittee of FICC. In June 2004, the NFC and Entrust team successfully conducted an operational capabilities demonstration for the SSP Subcommittee to meet the second set of requirements in the application process for becoming a Certified Provider. Subsequent to the demonstration, the NFC offering, which is based on Entrust products and technology, was selected by FICC and the SSP Subcommittee as a certified provider for PKI services. NFC has a long history of providing other government agencies a host of traditional services, including financial and payroll provisioning.
“Achieving certification as a shared services provider is a testament to the power of public-private initiatives,” said Bill Conner, CEO and Chairman of Entrust, Inc. “The strong relationships we have established with NFC’s talented management and technology teams have profoundly affected how we as a company look to deploy next-generation PKI services to our numerous government customers. This effort paves the way to bring the benefits and operational efficiencies that are enabled by PKI to many more government agencies, employees, citizens and businesses.”
Under the Electronic Government Act of 2002, the OMB determined that beginning in FY 2006, Federal Agencies that intend to use PKI services will be buying from qualified service providers operating under the Federal Common Policy Framework. Agencies with PKI operations that are cross-certified with the Federal Bridge Certification Authority (FBCA) will not be required to migrate to new service providers. The FBCA is a multi-agency information-sharing infrastructure powered by Entrust's PKI technology that ties together the newly cross-certified organizations and current government participants.
Entrust has been integral in the development and deployment of the FBCA itself, providing the technology foundation that powers the infrastructure and assuming the role of trusted advisor to help agencies meet certification requirements. Six of the eight cross-certified entities sharing information via the FBCA utilize Entrust technology (Energy, State, State of Illinois, Treasury, NASA and USDA-NFC). Cross certification with the FBCA enables each agency's PKI to recognize and trust digital certificates and signatures sent from and between other participating government organizations. It also allows all organizations to make one security agreement with the FBCA rather than making security agreements with each of the cross-certified organizations they need to interact with.
A recent 2004 Accenture study, “eGovernment Leadership: High Performance, Maximum Value”, highlighted trends and accomplishments of the top global eGovernments. Eight out of the top ten as ranked by the study are Entrust customers. Additionally, Entrust has deployments in over 65 Federal agencies and bureaus within the United States government.