GSA approves Entrust ID software

GSA's E-authentication Web site

General Services Administration officials have added Entrust Inc. to a list of companies approved to sell identity management software to federal civilian agencies.

Federal agency officials are expected to use security software for verifying the identities of government employees, business officials or citizens before providing access to federal networks or authorizing the use of online government applications. The use of identity management, or e-authentication, software becomes mandatory in 2008, but many federal agencies will beat the deadline.

Companies are added to the GSA list after passing interoperability tests based on compliance with Security Assertion Markup Language Version 1.0, which offers a technical basis for managing and exchanging identity credentials such as digital certificates and passwords. The tests are conducted in a lab operated by Enspier Technologies, an information technology consulting company, under a contract with GSA.

Entrust's identity management software, GetAccess, handles various online security functions — identity verification, access control and authorization — that are necessary for secure e-government and e-commerce.

GSA's list creates a level playing field, said Gary Moore, chief architect for CygnaCom Solutions Inc., an Entrust company that provides information security testing services to the federal government. Moore said company officials would soon announce a significant federal contract for GetAccess now that the software has been added to GSA's approved list.

The five other companies on GSA's list of approved e-authentication software providers are Entegrity Solutions Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Oblix Inc., RSA Security Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc.