Entrust Managed Services PKI Offering Receives Final GSA Approval

Latest authorization enables Entrust to activate new service for state agencies, federal government

23 Feb 2007

DALLAS - In December 2006, Entrust, Inc. [NASDAQ: ENTU] made the General Services Administration (GSA) list of approved shared service providers for public key infrastructure (PKI). Just six weeks later Entrust completed the next step in this process by receiving a full Authority to Operate (ATO) - an accomplishment that has traditionally taken some providers a full year to accomplish. Entrust's experience in U.S. federal spaces, coupled with a vast familiarity with real-world government agency deployments, allowed for the efficient six-week turnaround.

The GSA Authority to Operate is the final government approval that allows shared service providers to offer PKI services within federal environments. The Authority to Operate will also place the Entrust Shared Service Provider on the HSPD12 Approved Product List (APL). The ATO is the result of an extensive certification and accreditation (C&A) review process that the GSA conducts on shared service providers. This process is intended to alleviate the need for each agency to complete their own C&A review prior to taking advantage of the Entrust service offering. Entrust remains the provider with the largest footprint within U.S. federal civilian agencies.

"Entrust's expertise in deploying PKI for the federal government is a true testament to our experience in securing some of the most recognizable agencies and organizations in the world," said Entrust Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Conner. "The Entrust Managed Services PKI will give government agencies the ability to leverage our world-class PKI experience and solutions quickly without having to implement and manage their own PKI infrastructure and resources."

In December 2006, Entrust gained GSA status and was authorized (while undergoing audits to achieve ATO certification) to help federal agencies reap the security benefits of PKI without having to maintain the certification authority (CA) themselves.

Entrust Managed Services PKI is cross certified with the US Federal Common Policy Certificate Authority and allows state governments to interact with federal agencies without having to cross certify themselves. The service also can be leveraged by industry consortiums, giving access to an ecosystem of trust to customers who take advantage of the managed PKI service to meet evolving security needs.

Added Conner, "As evident by the vast number of federal deployments, PKI remains the premier solution that serves as a cornerstone for a strong, layered security strategy, regardless of the size of the company or government."

In addition, the Entrust Managed Services PKI infrastructure offers high assurance and is fully redundant, thereby eliminating single points of failure and is housed in secure facilities. The Entrust Managed Services PKI leverages intelligent monitoring to quickly detect faults, performance issues and security incidents and the entire infrastructure is archived comprehensively at an off-site facility. CygnaCom Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Entrust, Inc., operates the CA.

Entrust Managed Services PKI includes the certificate and security management functions that have set Entrust apart from other vendors in the market, including key generation, storage and recovery; certificate and certificate revocation list generation and distribution; certificate update and renewal; and certificate token initialization, programming and management. Additional benefits of Entrust's PKI service include flexible enrollment options, directory services and OCSP services, including hosted responders. Security management functions are provided including security auditing, certificate tracking and archiving.

As a trusted provider of PKI software and services to government and industry for more than 10 years, Entrust offers industry-leading solutions combined with unrivaled knowledge of the Federal PKI environments and policies. This technology allows Entrust customers to reap the benefits of PKI's security and transparent ease of use to the end-user. As well as serving as the basis of the Federal Bridge Certification Authority, Entrust PKI technology serves customers including the State of Illinois, State of Virginia, the Departments of State, Treasury, Energy and Justice, as well as NASA, the Government Printing Office, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the FBI.

For more information about Entrust Managed Services PKI, please visit: http://www.entrust.com/e_government/shared-service-provider.htm.

For the list of GSA SSP Certified Providers, please visit: http://www.cio.gov/ficc/cpl.htm.

Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Limited in Canada. All other Entrust product names and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Entrust, Inc or Entrust Limited. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.