GSA confident about availability of HSPD-12 products
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The General Services Administration is testing the last remaining vital piece for agencies to develop a Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 compliant identification management system.
The General Services Administration is testing the last remaining vital piece for agencies to develop a Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 compliant identification management system.
David Temoshok, GSA's director of identity management and policy, said today that electronic personalization products and services now are in testing, and he is optimistic that they will be approved in time for agencies to meet the Oct. 27 deadline, which is in 38 days.
E-personalization products and services ensure that the data stored on the Personal Identification Validation card's chip can be read by the card reader. The data includes the user's fingerprint representation, their digital certificate and their cardholder unique identification number.
Temoshok, who spoke at the Interagency Smart Card Advisory Board meeting in Washington, said GSA had to wait for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to finalize the e-personalization requirements and develop a test. NIST approved the requirements in July and delivered the test to GSA in late August, he said.
GSA still hopes to approve at least three products in each of the 22 categories, but Temoshok said some content areas will not be approved in time because they are not critical for agencies meeting the deadline.
'We are running a full court press over these last six weeks to get all this done,' he said. 'We are working with vendors to make sure all products and services have been evaluated and available.'
GSA also is depending on the FBI to approve fingerprint readers. The FBI has been using the Electronic Fingerprint Transmission Specification since 1995 and has approved a number of fingerprint systems.
Overall 60 products have been approved across the 22 categories, Temoshok said. If GSA does not meet its goal of three products per category, Temoshok said one per category would be a good start.
'This is a new type of acquisition process where we establish validation and approval requirements for GSA,' he said. 'It required us to change the way we do business for schedule management.'
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