Feb 26, 2009 : VeriSign Offers Managed PKI Service

📅 February 26, 2009 - IT infrastructure service provider VeriSign (verisign.com) announced on Thursday it is offering VeriSign Non-Federal Shared Service Provider PKI, a managed PKI service designed for all organizations needing interoperability with the federal government, including state and local governments, government contractors.

The company recently acquired security provider Certicom for $73 million.

VeriSign Non-Federal SSP PKI facilitates a trusted collaboration between federal and state governments and the public and private sector in areas such as domestic security, health care and academic research.

As a result, non-federal entities can operate at the specific levels of assurance required by the federal government.

The service includes a clone of the PKI service that VeriSign delivers to federal agencies for issuing Personal Identity Verification smartcards to comply with the requirements of Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12.

The solution is cross-certified with the Federal Bridge Certification Authority at four assurance levels.

At the highest assurance level, VeriSign Non-Federal SSP PKI enables state and local governments to issue PKI certificates on First Responder Authentication Cards smartcards that are interoperable with the PIV cards issued to federal employees and contractors.

The VeriSign Federal SSP PKI and associated Card Management System for PIV enable federal agencies to issue PIV cards to their employees and contractors.

The offering now extends the concept of certified managed PKI services to non-federal organizations, but with additional assurance levels so that its service can adapt to the enterprise PKI needs of these organizations.

The service uses the same technology, standards, and infrastructure that VeriSign, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and others have developed to enable federal agencies to comply with Federal Information Processing Standard 201.

"[VeriSign Non-Federal SSP PKI] builds upon VeriSign's deep experience in operating infrastructure that is critical for ensuring trusted communications between individuals and organizations," says Nicholas Piazzola, vice president of government programs at VeriSign. "By providing an infrastructure that meets the strict criteria for interoperability with the federal government, it enables non-federal organizations to avoid the significant time, investment and expertise needed to achieve trusted interoperability with the federal government."

The service is now available and includes a public directory and OCSP validation services.

Pricing is on a per-user basis and each user can be issued nearly an unlimited number of certificates.

The states of Colorado and Kansas, as well as The University of Texas, have already chosen VeriSign Non-Federal SSP PKI to meet their FRAC and enterprise PKI needs.

It is hosted in the same facilities and data centers from which VeriSign provides mission-critical security and infrastructure services.