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Digital Identity Assurance Provider Helps Enable Army, Air Force and Department of Defense to Meet Looming Presidential Security Directive Deadline and Beyond
FREMONT: ActivIdentity Corp., a global leader in digital identity assurance, today announced major contract wins by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force. The company's smart card desktop client software ActivIdentity ActivClient 6.0 was selected to enable their move to next- generation HSPD-12 certified Common Access Cards due to be put in place by October 27, 2006. The DoD contract was awarded through the Government Services Administration (GSA) and systems integrator EDS for five years and is available to other agencies throughout the government.
“We're proud of our continuing relationship within DoD and appreciate the confidence they have shown us as evidenced by the award of these contracts,” said ActivIdentity CEO Jason Hart. “ActivIdentity's solution will allow the DoD the continued critical security and connectivity between their already widely-deployed CAC smart IDs, while further enabling the advanced secure authentication which is so vital to fulfillment of the HSPD-12 vision.”
The DoD has selected ActivIdentity ActivClient 6.0 as the standard smart card middleware for authenticating the holders of each of DoD's current and next-generation smart CAC IDs for access to their local computer and departmental network systems, as well as secure remote access. With ActivClient 6.0, ActivIdentity was chosen to provide the smart card-based security, compatibility and government-wide interoperability prescribed by Presidential Mandate HSPD-12 to connect and digitally authenticate next- generation Java-based CAC's for the DoD's 3.5 million military personnel and contractors around the world.
Utilizing ActivIdentity card management, ActivClient middleware, and advanced Java applications over the past five years, DoD's CAC program has already become one of the largest and most sophisticated smart card systems in the world. ActivClient 6.0 is the only smart card client software that provides support for multiple generations of CAC versions, preserving DoD's investment, providing smooth migration to new standards, and enabling a wide range of capabilities beyond the basic PIV requirement. This enables advanced secure business processes as well as post issuance capabilities to update and upgrade the CAC cards in the field with new applications as they are required.
“The DoD has worked hard with partners like ActivIdentity, and others, to put in place the department's HSPD-12 ready identity management system infrastructure to manage this large of a deployment and support the interoperability, security and common business processes demanded by DoD's computer and physical access requirements around the world,” said Mary Dixon, director, Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). “Now that our new card is in place we will utilize our well established enterprise card management infrastructure to quickly and effective deploy this new card into the field.”
After evaluating ActivClient, the Army decided to grant ActivIdentity the complete middleware award for its next-generation HSPD-12 smart card implementation by deploying ActivClient 6.0 on all of its more than 800,000 seats. The Air Force previously deployed 600,000 seats of ActivIdentity ActivCard Gold 3.0 and is currently upgrading all 600,000 users to PIV- compliant ActivClient 6.0 for its CACs.
The Stanford Group Company* values the HSPD-12 opportunity at approximately $1.3 billion over five years, with the bulk of the revenue flowing in fiscal years 2007-2009, *(Identity Solutions Industry Outlook, July 2006).
“The issuance of HSPD-12 enabled smart cards throughout the government is a tremendous first step toward the security and efficiency goals set by the President. We are now working with many agencies to help them begin the process of putting the infrastructure and applications in place to allow the full potential of interoperability and advanced authentication,” concluded Hart.
HSPD-12 and the ActivIdentity FIPS 201 PIV Solution
The rapidly approaching October 27, 2006 deadline for HSPD-12 mandates government agencies to deploy FIPS 201-certified Personal Identity Verification (PIV) smart identification cards, which incorporate identity assurance and strong authentication practices utilizing PKI and biometric fingerprint credentials on a single cryptographic smart card for increased security of both facility and network access.
ActivIdentity has worked with many government agencies and leaders in the industry to create the industry's first end-to-end FIPS 201 PIV solution set that incorporates the ActivIdentity industry leading smart card and credential management systems (ActivIdentity CMS 4.0) and smart card client software (ActivIdentity ActivClient 6.0) products.
ActivIdentity (formerly ActivCard) is the trusted provider of digital identity assurance solutions for the enterprise, government, healthcare, and financial services markets worldwide. The company provides the only fully-integrated platform for the secure issuance, management and use of single secure digital identities.
The ActivIdentity platform allows users to access information, communicate and conduct electronic transactions anywhere, anytime, regardless of differing security requirements and authentication challenges. Solutions include secure remote access, single sign-on, large scale enterprise access card systems, and multi-channel identification and verification.
