CertiPath Members Gain Trusted Status with
U.S. Department of Defense Policy on Identity
Certificates
Community Securing Data Collaboration over
Internet
Herndon, Va. (July 29, 2008) —
In a policy announced today, the U.S. Department of Defense
now accepts the trust fabric for identity assurance and
management established by the U.S. Federal Bridge. As the
first commercial bridge to be cross-certified on the Federal
Bridge in 2006, CertiPath becomes the only 3rd-party
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Bridge Authority proven to
meet the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) newest policy
for accepting digital identity certificates from external
parties.
The DoD policy– which until now only
trusted digital identity certificates issued by its own
authority – recognizes CertiPath’s ability to ensure
identity integrity that is at least as robust as the DoD’s
current identity requirements.
CertiPath is the only commercial PKI
Bridge with policies and practices that meet the federal
agency’s stringent requirements for medium- and
high-assurance certification and is cross certified to the
U.S. Federal Bridge Certificate Authority (FBCA). CertiPath
enables secure, trusted identities by enforcing a common
standard of care across all of its member companies. It
correlates hundreds of policy mapping points for each
organization, including technical, governance and procedural
controls around physical and logical access to the identity
management infrastructure. Companies that meet or
exceed the standards may become members of CertiPath.
“No other entity deals in the volume and
scope of sensitive information that the DoD uses on a daily
basis,” said Jeff Nigriny, president and COO of CertiPath.
“This policy represents the culmination of five years
of effort to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the
community’s identity infrastructures. We’ve worked very
closely with the offices of the CIO and our members to
achieve the highest possible standards of trust.”
By accepting digital certificates issued
by the members of CertiPath, the DoD improves information
security along its supply chain, even as it engenders
broader collaboration among its major partners. CertiPath
enables the higher level of identity assurance needed for
the DoD to meet the increasingly collaborative nature of
defense while decreasing the risk that sensitive information
will be compromised.
“This policy recognizes the maturity of
our efforts – and the efforts of the whole CertiPath
community – to deploy PKI-based security solutions that
merit the DoD’s confidence,” said Jeff Brown, chief
information security officer of the Raytheon Company. “With
this shared foundation of trust, we can speed the efforts of
the real mission – building national defense systems that
protect against the evolving threats to our customers around
the world.”
Members of the CertiPath community,
including Boeing, EADS, Lockheed Martin Company, Northrop
Grumman and Raytheon gain significant additional return on
the investment made in becoming cross-certified via
CertiPath. These major players in the aerospace and defense
industry now leverage the inherent trust provided by the
CertiPath community to bid on contracts and collaborate on
work-in-progress through secure document sharing and e-mail.
“Achieving the level of identity
assurance needed to do business with the DoD for our own
operations is one thing – extending that confidence to
partners outside our organization is a different challenge,”
said Tim McKnight, chief information security officer, of
Northrop Grumman. “This policy validates our efforts
with the CertiPath community where a shared commitment to
policies, legal requirements and interoperability standards
makes it possible for us to work together.”
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About CertiPath
CertiPath provides the aerospace and defense industry’s only
public key infrastructure (PKI)-based communications bridge
where information can be shared widely, securely,
effectively and affordably between partners, suppliers and
customers – regardless of the size and scope of the supply
chain. CertiPath’s disruptive solution
tears down the burdensome and costly company, employee and
program-centric approaches to identity assurance.
Today, organizations in the U.S., U.K. and Europe including
Boeing, BAE Systems, EADS, Lockheed Martin, Northrop
Grumman, Raytheon and the U.S. Federal Bridge (FBCA) are
members of this fast-growing community. For more
information, visit CertiPath on the web at
http://www.certipath.com
All product and company names herein may
be trademarks of their registered owners.
Media Contacts:
Michael Italiano
Susan Bassett
Corporate Ink
617.969.9192
mitaliano@corporateink.com
sbassett@corporateink.com
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