Program Overview
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) USAccess program enables U.S. federal government agencies to credential both employees, contractors affiliates, etc. This program, managed by the GSA HSPD-12 Managed Service Office (HSPD-12 MSO), helps agencies meet the timelines mandated by HSPD-12, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12), “Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors”.
USAccess Service Components
The GSA MSO is offering the USAccess end-to-end solution as a shared service to federal civilian agencies. By
enrolling in the USAccess program, federal agencies gain access to a standard, end-to-end contractor managed service providing the following system components:
- Sponsorship: Provides the ability to initiate the creation of identities in the system for credential issuance. Options include manual data entry, bulk load capabilities, as well as support of an HR line-of-business (HR-LOB) interface.
- Enrollment: Captures identity information (including source documents), fingerprints and digital facial images, and then securely stores them in the shared identity management system.
- Adjudication: Provides the ability to initiate background investigations to the OPM/FBI, resubmit when errors or quality issues are encountered, and record the results when the investigation is complete.
- System infrastructure: Provides a secure, standards-based enterprise identity management capability with various PIV related components including: enrollment service providers, a central Systems Infrastructure Provider (SIP) and card management system, card batch management and production facilities, a certified Federal PKI provider, and attended and unattended finalization service providers within an overall architecture implemented with high availability and disaster recovery capabilities.
- Credential production and issuance: Automatically batches and processes credential requests, produces personal identity verification credentials via a central credential production facility, and ships them to approved designated agency locations.
- Credential activation: Verifies applicants’ identities using biometric verification and then “personalizes” the credentials with the applicants’ biographic information, fingerprint templates, PIN, and generates their suite of digital certificates. Activation is provided via an attended activation station with an operator or using a workstation for unattended activation. Unattended activation requires fingerprint biometric verification prior to credential activation in order to maintain the security of the system.
- Role Administration: Provides the agency the ability to assign role holders within the system.
- Reporting: Provides the ability to generate various system reports.
- Post Issuance Capabilities: Provides post issuance management of the credentials via system portals. Credential activity, such as suspensions, reactivations, or revocations, may be performed by authorized role holders via an intuitive user interface.
- Public Key Infrastructure (PKI): Provides four digital certificates (credential authentication, identity, e-mail signing, and e-mail encryption.)
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By using the USAccess program, agencies can trust that credentials issued under this program are secure, reliable, and comply with government-established HSPD-12 standards. The USAccess program also simplifies the process of registering, credentialing, and maintaining the lifecycle of these credentials for each participating agency, as GSA MSO serves as the executive agent responsible for administering and coordinating the USAccess program.
By centralizing all project coordination, product acquisition, and financial management for the program under GSA MSO, greater efficiencies and cost savings are achieved both for the Agency and for the Government overall.
Advantages to participating in the USAccess program include:
- Centralized program management: Participation in the program alleviates federal agencies from having to manage the complexities of building and maintaining their own in-house HSPD-12 compliant products. MSO will manage the acquisition of services, coordinate integration with government systems, as well as manage contracted vendors for the USAccess program. Tasks such as certification and accreditation (C&A), OMB reporting, privacy assessments, and configuration management are all managed under the MSO umbrella.
- Built-in HSPD-12 Policy Compliance: As the executive agent for the program, MSO has evaluated the technology powering the USAccess system to ensure it meets HSPD-12 requirements. Participating agencies gain immediate access to an end-to-end service that enables them to begin issuing PIV-compliant credentials according to government milestones.
- Reduced capital expenditures: Using a shared services model, the USAccess program has adopted a simplified, per-credential fee system that eliminates the large upfront costs typically encountered with implementing new IT infrastructures. By leveraging the collective buying power of the Federal government, the USAccess program spreads infrastructure costs among all USAccess program participants, which in turn reduces the overall price for each individual agency.
- Enhanced Security: Federal agencies can trust the credentials issued under the USAccess program as each credential is registered and verified according to the requirements outlined by NIST and GSA. By utilizing a standard credentialing system such as the USAccess program, agencies will enhance security and reduce identity fraud. Participating agencies can easily use the USAccess service to procure credentials for their employees and contractors across the United States.
- Ease of Use and Deployment: As a managed service, the USAccess system can be easily deployed at participating agencies as the system has already been integrated and tested from end-to-end. Once implemented, the system offers an easy to navigate portal where participating agencies can view the status of enrollments and activations, and report progress to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
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About the HSPD-12 Policy
First issued on August 27, 2004, the HSPD-12 policy requires federal agencies to adopt a standard process to establish and manage an individual’s identity through an interoperable credential to be used for physical and/or logical access to federal government facilities and information systems.
Under the HSPD-12 directive, federal agencies are required to produce and issue PIV-compliant credentials to employees starting in October 2006. GSA established the USAccess program to assist federal agencies in meeting these deadlines.
EDS Selected as USAccess Program Vendor
GSA selected Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 2007 as the prime contractor to provide technology and services in support of the USAccess program. By selecting EDS as its vendor, GSA acquired innovative, yet standardized, end-to-end contractor managed services. Supporting the EDS team in providing HSPD-12 services are Northop Grumman Corp., L-1 Identity Solutions, Data Systems Analysts Inc., and Identification Technology Group.
To help produce PIV-compliant credentials, EDS coupled its acclaimed EDS Assured Identity™ solution with many years of proven smart card capabilities to deliver a complete end-to-end solution to meet USAccess program requirements.