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ROCKVILLE, MD, NOV. 3, 2003
Digital Signature Trust Wins HHS Contract to Provide Federal Employees with ACES Digital Certificates
Contract represents first-of-kind program to accelerate E-Gov programs between agencies and meet requirements for the E-Authentication Initiative
Digital Signature Trust (DST), a subsidiary of Identrus, LLC, has won a contract worth $4.54 million from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for the initial implementation and deployment of its Enterprise PKI program. The project represents the first broad-scale use of Access Certificates for Electronic Services (ACES) credentials for federal employees, enabling secure and trusted government-to-government (G2G) transactions as well as government-to-business (G2B) transactions between HHS employees and contractors. Implementation of the HHS program began July 7th, with plans to issue ACES certificates to federal employees starting in February 2004.
"HHS has taken a holistic approach to deploying digital certificates to our staff. In addition to issuing certificates, we are developing a certificate acceptance infrastructure that enables interoperability with other federal initiatives. Besides validating our own HHS-based certificates, our infrastructure can authenticate certificates issued through other federal programs, such as the Federal Bridge Certificate Authority, and record validations to support the GPEA NARA requirements," said Mark Silverman, HHS PKI program manger. "To spearhead widespread use of PKI solutions within the HHS, we've initiated a set of projects built on actual production systems that demonstrate the benefits of digital signature technologies."
DST and its subcontractor SRA will develop and operate both HHS's secure registration pages and its innovative approach to certificate validation. The registration system and workflow process were developed by HHS as a "best-practices" approach for federal agencies to utilize an electronic credentialing process for employees. Additionally, HHS has developed the concept of a certificate acceptance infrastructure (CAI) that integrates the key certificate validation initiatives in use in the Federal Government, especially the Federal Bridge Certificate Authority (FBCA) and the ACES Certificate Arbitrator Module (CAM).
The initial deployment of the HHS program will provide two-year ACES credentials to HHS employees and SSL certificates for use within the HHS domain. Additionally, HHS is sponsoring six demonstration projects. These projects will showcase the use of the HHS-developed CAI; integration of PKI in workflow; and three Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) programs involving Web-based submissions from external HHS constituents. The contract provides for the issuance of ACES business representative certificates for these latter programs.
"The President's Management Agenda is very focused on improving processes and consolidating investments in government, especially around e-authentication and identity management", said Peter Alterman, HHS' representative to the eAuthentication Steering Committee and HHS' representative to the Federal Identity Coordinating Committee. "HHS is setting a great example of how agencies can take advantage of selected shared authentication services, such as ACES, to authenticate and validate electronic identity."
"The Department of Health and Human Services is a clear leader in the move toward e-Government, embracing trusted solutions that are interoperable across all agencies and departments," said Keren Cummins, director of government services for DST. "HHS is taking an innovative approach in developing a strong certificate issuance and acceptance infrastructure that leverages the existing ACES contract and complies with the emerging authentication regulations from the Federal Identity Coordinating Committee (FICC)."
About Digital Signature Trust, an Identrus Company
Digital Signature Trust, LLC (DST), a subsidiary of Identrus, LLC provides managed identity authentication services combining hosting, professional services and extensive PKI implementation experience. DST is the leading provider of federally sponsored and interoperable electronic identity credentials under the GSA's ACES program and DoD's IECA program. DST partners with systems integrators, software developers, smart card and token providers, as well as experts on identity management, security and fraud to help government agencies achieve greater application security and meet e-Government objectives. More information is available at www.trustdst.com. For more information on Identrus, visit www.identrust.com.
About SRA International, Inc.
SRA is a leading provider of information technology services and solutions to clients in national security, health care and public health, and civil government. SRA services include strategic consulting; systems design, development, and integration; and outsourcing and operations management. The Company also delivers business solutions for text and data mining, contingency and disaster response planning, information assurance, environmental strategies and technology, enterprise architecture, network operations and management, and enterprise systems management.
FORTUNEÃ magazine has chosen SRA as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" for four consecutive years. The Company's 2,600 employees serve clients from its headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, and offices across the country. For additional information on SRA, please visit www.sra.com
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Schwartz Communications, Inc.
Rebecca Krueger
+1 415-512-0770
Identrust@schwartz-pr.com
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