U.S. agencies given deadline for smart ID testing
Smart-card samples must be submitted by Friday to meet security directive
|
January 17, 2007 (Computerworld) --
Federal agencies have until Friday to submit for government testing a sample of the new smart-card identity credential that they were supposed to have started issuing to all employees last October under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12.
The request for the update went out to federal CIOs in a memo issued last week by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and signed by de facto federal CIO Karen Evans. It instructed all agencies to provide by Jan. 19 a sample of their HSPD-12-compliant Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards to the General Services Administration.
"The credential will be tested by GSA who will provide test results and report any configuration problems requiring correction to the agency within three weeks of receipt," the OMB memo noted. Agencies will then have three weeks to make the needed corrections and resubmit the credentials for testing. Those unable to meet that deadline would need to show that substantial progress was being made to address problems discovered during testing, the OMB said. "Agencies should consider not issuing new credentials until all problems identified in testing are resolved," it added.
Issued on Aug 27, 2004, HSPD-12 requires federal agencies to deploy a common standard for identifying and authenticating all employees and contractors. Under the program, agencies are required to conduct background checks on all employees and contractors and issue them an interoperable identity credential for controlling access to government facilities and IT systems. Each agency had until October 2005 to put into place the needed processes for conducting background checks. They were expected to start issuing PIV cards last October.
Though both deadlines were viewed as extremely aggressive given the scope of the mandate, many government agencies started distributing smart ID cards to workers and contractors last October. Most of the initial rollouts were very small and appeared to be attempts to show that agencies had become -- at least technically -- compliant with the directive's requirements.
Agencies have until September 2008 to finish rolling out the cards to all employees and contractors.
The OMB memo noted that the cost of the initial card testing will be borne by the GSA. However, agencies will have to reimburse the GSA if "substantial GSA support is necessary" to help resolve technical issues, the OMB memo said.
Starting in March, agencies will also need to post on their public Web sites a quarterly update detailing the exact number of PIV credentials issued. The reports need to be filed using a standard template that was issued last week by the OMB that requires agencies to distinguish between credentials issued to employees and those issued to contractors.

0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home