GSA studies smart card value

The General Services Administration has hired a contractor to study the

cost and benefits of using PKI-enabled smart cards for federal applications.

The Office of Electronic Commerce within GSA's Office of Governmentwide

Policy has tasked Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc. with developing a model

business case for using smart cards as the vehicle for public-key infrastructure

technology. A draft of the report is due tod

A PKI-enabled smart card

stores the digital certificates used to identify and authenticate a user

to an application. Such hardware-based certificates are generally accepted

as more secure than software-based certificates, which are normally stored

on a user's hard drive or a server.

The report will detail the current use of PKI on smart cards in government

and compare the cost and benefits of smart cards with other hardware and

software PKI solutions, said Marion A. Royal, an agency expert in GSA's

Office of Governmentwide Policy.

Once the final study is published in November, Royal said he hopes it

will help agencies decide if "now's the time" to invest in the smart card-based

solution. It also could help drive business to GSA's three-month-old Smart

Access Common Identification contract, he said. The contract offers smart

cards and services to support multiple federal applications, such as personal

identification and access to buildings and computers, on a single card.

"As agencies look to that vehicle, [I] hope that this business model

is something they can show to managers as justification with moving forward

with smart cards," Royal said.

GSA is conducting the study for the CIO Council's Enterprise Interoperability

and Emerging Information Technology Committee.