E-authentication team takes inventory

As early as next week, the General Services Administration’s Office of Electronic Government will release a draft of its E-Authentication Inventory Template, a table that will list every federal agency's progress toward building a security architecture.Workers developing the E-Authentication project, an effort led by GSA to set up a system that confirms the identities of federal systems users, will have access to the template.The template will appear on GSA’s Public-Key Infrastructure Steering Committee Web site. It will present a matrix that indexes factors such as agencies’ policy development, and use of hardware and software.GSA will use the template as “a basis for current technologies and platforms they can leverage in developing the E-Authentication gateway,” said Rodney Miller, a research analyst in the Office of Electronic Government.Knowing how each agency is progressing toward secure transactions will help GSA bring agencies’ resources and expertise together on E-Authentication, Miller said.So far agencies are sending GSA their progress reports via e-mail or postal mail. No completion date is set for the template.