October 31, 2003
Volume 1, Number 6
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Read What DoD
Information Assurance
Experts Said At
2003
Transforming Information Assurance: DoD's Roadmap for the Future
Robert F. Lentz
Director of Information Assurance
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense Networks
and Information Integration/CIO
Click Here To View Presentation
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Submit your press releases,white papers and case studies on innovation and best practices, click here | |
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FIAC 2003 SPECIAL COVERAGE
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Expanding Digital Signatures
HHS Will Deal ACES Agencywide
The Health and Human Services department will be the first agency to adopt the 5-year old ACES digital certificate authentication solution “on an enterprisewide scale,” a government official said.
ACES (Access Certificates for Electronic Services ) is the General Services Administration’s flagship public key infrastructure program through which computer users both inside and outside government can conduct secure transactions with federal agencies on the Internet.
After a “phase one” implementation, HHS officials are expected to extend ACES digital certificates to most or all employees.
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GSA has been spearheading the adoption of ACES in smaller increments since the program’s inception in the early days of e-government. ACES is used by elements of the Social Security Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and the National Institutes of Science and Technology. The program had not yet landed an agencywide implementation until HHS made its recent decision.
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Heeding The Call To Use Shared Services
An official familiar with the program said HHS considered creating their own digital certificate program but ultimately yielded to the Office of Management and Budget’s directive advising that agencies start using shared services. OMB touts such services because they are likely to lower costs, expedite implementation cycles and foster interoperability across government.
At its inception, GSA envisioned an ACES program that might one day be extended by agencies not only to employees and business partners, but to any citizen who wanted to do business with the government. Advocates of digital certificates have even argued that the technology could someday be employed to turn the Internet into America’s most reliable voting booth.
To date, however, in the federal sector, ACES and PKI in general have been likely to only show up in the business relationships of agencies with contractors and partners, and only then when security concerns are high.
The HHS deal comes shortly after a GSA contract review board advised GSA not to renew ACES after September 2005, according to a report in Government Computer News that detailed eight GWAC contracts that might be allowed to expire when their terms end.
AT&T, Digital Signature Trust (DST) Co. and Operational Research Consultants Inc. are the three prime contractors that provide ACES services under the GSA program. HHS will reportedly rely on DST for their certificates and related integration services.
This article was written by Robert Green, Public Sector Institute senior editor. Green covered FIAC and can be reached at RobertGreen@PubSector.net. |
