The Department of Homeland Security is working on a framework to help government agencies and partner organizations manage user identities through a trusted network of interoperable systems, Federal News Radio reported Friday.Jason Miller writes DHS will add interoperability standards to its Homeland Security Information Network program in an effort to bolster data sharing and security across the government.
“We are strengthening the network of identity as we re-released HSIN this year,” Donna Roy, a DHS program director and executive director of DHS’ Information Sharing Environment Office, told the radio station.
Miller reports the department also wants federal employees and contractors to use smart IDs to comply with a homeland security presidential directive.
Roy said the DHS aims to have at least three-quarters of workers use electronic authentication cards by the end of 2014, according to the report.
“It’s mostly the mix of applications that have their own authentication mechanisms that have to be changed and that does relate to resources and funding in a tight fiscal environment,” Roy added.
While it is common place for contractors and employees to use specific systems and services owned by the government to execute government and contracts. These systems whether unclassified or classified often have specific security requirements, such as CAC cards, smart cards, PKI certificates etc used for identity management and authentication. These systems are typically paid for by the government. I believe it is ridiculous to expect private companies or contracting firms to integrate their separate and private networks and trust the government networks. Not going to happen! Contractors and private companies are not going to accept the cost, nor the risk of doing this. More importantly, it is not necessary and HSPD-12 is already in place and has been for for 5 years or more but is still not any wheres near being implemented across the government. Suggest the government fully implement HSPD-12 before attempting to implement anything new or different. This is the problem with the government and more specifically with DHS. There are already laws/policies in place to address this without inventing new laws, policies and mandates. Stick with what is already in place and fully implement those laws/policies before coming up with new laws, policies and mandates that simply cause more complexity, confusion and more disparate systems.