DHS taps Entrust, XTec to deploy PKI, smart card login
17 November, 2009
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Entrust Inc. will provide the unified security infrastructure for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This agreement helps DHS enable cost-savings, meet HSPD-12 requirements, encrypt communications and data, and deploy secure credentials for both physical and logical access.
Facilitated by partner XTec Inc., who is the HSPD-12 solution provider for DHS, the Entrust deployment will provide PKI services and digital certificates for all DHS components and their employees. The two-year implementation will leverage Entrust’s PKI architecture, Entrust Authority, as well as Entrust Entelligence Security Provider and XTec’s AuthentX platform for the management and secure distribution of the agency’s internal digital certificates. These certificates will provide DHS proven smart card login, network authentication, as well as encryption for e-mail and desktop environments.
Entrust’s PKI solution has been implemented to perform security tasks in various U.S. federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of State for e-passports and the shared service provider PKI for the U.S. Department of Treasury. Entrust’s hosted PKI service is also identified by the U.S. General Services Administration as an approved shared service provider for use within federal environments.
Additional state and federal PKI deployments include the State of Illinois, State of Virginia, the Departments of Energy and Justice, NASA, the Government Printing Office, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
XTec provides the experience to help federal agencies deploy solutions to comply with HSPD-12 and PIV requirements, as defined in FIPS 201 and related NIST standards. The specific solution, XTec’s AuthentX Identity Management System, includes components for an HSPD-12 PIV II solution.