Probaris

Aberdeen Reports Significant Shift in Strong Authentication Market

Two recent research studies by the Aberdeen Group indicate a shift in the market for end user authentication solutions.  

The research indicates that the number of organizations considering one-time password (OTP) solutions for end user authentication dropped dramatically during first half of 2011.  Over the same period, the number of organizations considering solutions based on smart card authentication had grown significantly.  Aberdeen points to the recent security breach affecting the RSA SecurID OTP product as the likely cause for the shift in the market. 

The research report, “The Case for Smart Cards”, is available on the Aberdeen Group’s website.  A complimentary copy of the report is available by clicking here.

Probaris Announces Identity as a Service (IDaaS) Offering

New service offering builds on proven PIV and PIV-I Solution for flexible rapid deployments by Federal Trading Partners, Commercial, and Public Sector Entities

Probaris, Inc. has launched its Identity as a Service (IDaaS) offering to allow government agencies and commercial enterprises to quickly and easily deploy PIV Interoperable (PIV-I) technology and processes.  Building on the Probaris ID™ Registration Authority for PIV and PIV-I, the solution makes it possible for enterprises, government agencies, and other entities to establish an authoritative identity store with mappings to even the highest possible assurance levels.  The Probaris IDaaS™ solution is powered by integration of the Probaris ID™ Registration Authority with card management and certificate authorities.  The IDaaS™ offering provides an end-to-end solution for smart card and mobile credentials which can be deployed quickly and easily.  Probaris IDaaS™ provides the CIO, CISO, and CSO with the ability to integrate existing identity and access management (IAM), and security components into the managed identity service, along with expert services to integrate them.  And, the CFO gets a more robust, leaner, and more effective compliance framework.

Enabling the process, procedures and technology of FIPS 201, the Probaris ID™ Registration Authority provides organizations with the critical business policies and functions to consolidate their identity infrastructure into a single, secure, scalable, identity vault.  With this foundation, organizations can then proceed to credentialing and access management for a wide range of tokens and applications. 

Deployment of strong authentication solutions based on the PIV and PIV-I standards are among the most effective means to protect networks, systems, and data. Recent high profile cyber attacks against defense contractors, federal agencies and financial institutions have raised the urgency to secure critical information and infrastructure. The U.S. government adopted the Personal Identity Verification (PIV) standard in 2005.  All federal agencies have now deployed PIV solutions and are moving toward full compliance with the standard.  Millions of federal employees now carry PIV credentials. Many federal agencies are now developing innovative uses of the trusted identities to secure their cyber and physical assets. In 2009 a new standard for PIV interoperable (PIV-I) credentials authorized commercial entities to issue similarly strong trusted identity credentials.  PIV-I is intended for the vast population of commercial workers that must access federal systems in the course of their daily business, as well as, state and local governments, critical infrastructure businesses, and emergency workers.  The Federal Identity, Credentialing, and Access Management (ICAM) roadmap and guidance in use federal agencies directs the United States government and relying parties toward a single identity framework based on the PIV standard and related publications.  Many agency transactions now require PIV-I credentials for non-Federal trading partners and affiliated parties who access federal systems and facilities.

Enterprise deployment of PIV and PIV-I solutions require significant capital and technical expertise.  For those unfamiliar with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and asymmetric cryptography, digital certificates and validation, the learning process is technical and time consuming.  Probaris’ IDaaS™ removes the barriers to deployment by offering the solution as a managed service.  The service is backed by a team of identity subject matter experts, engineers, technicians and support staff that have been responsible for numerous deployments of PIV and PIV-I credentials and the related infrastructure and applications.

About Probaris
Probaris is a leading provider of trusted identity software and services. The company develops and markets Probaris IDTM, an end-to-end solution for issuance and verification of identities. Probaris enables consolidation of employee biometric and other identity data for registration, enrollment, issuance, and life cycle management of secure credentials.  Probaris has extensive expertise in the policies, standards, technologies, and best practices required to successfully transition organizations to advanced Identity, Credentialing, and Access Management (ICAM) solutions. 

Importance of the Authoritative Identity Store

Our friend Sal D'Agostino at IDMachines discusses: "The Registration Authority: Why an Authoritative Identity Store Needs to be the First Investment in the Enterprise Identity Infrastructure".

Supporting lower levels of identities is easy to do from a high assurance identity infrastructure.  Supporting higher levels of identity is extremely difficult if not impossible with a low level of assurance identity infrastructure.  The need to get things right at the start and to support the full range of use cases  is all the more reason to adopt PIV and PIV-I as enterprise policy for identity creation and to establish this as policy and a requirement for the enterprise registration authority.

Verizon Credentialing Service Earns Federal Identity Certification

From Verizon's Press Release:

Verizon is the first and only provider with a credentialing solution to be certified as a PIV-I approved provider, a certified Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 provider, a Federal Shared Service Provider, and a cross-certified Certificate Authority with the FBCA (Federal Bridge Certification Authority).