Will the federal government meet the HSPD-12 deadline?
Apr 20, 2006 2:58 PM
Significant obstacles may jeopardize U.S. federal agencies' chances of meeting an October 2006 HSPD-12 deadline mandating that federal employees and contractors use the FIPS 201 standard for physical and logical access, according to a survey of government systems integrators.
Most systems integrators questioned in a survey conducted by RSA Security Inc. believe U.S. federal agencies are tackling HSPD-12 in a narrow fashion -- 76 percent say none, or only a few, of the agencies with which they do business view HSPD-12 as an opportunity to lay the foundation for longer-term identity and access management (IAM) initiatives.
Half of the respondents believe that IAM -- as it relates to several federal information sharing initiatives -- will be the next major identity-related challenge facing U.S. federal agencies. Twenty-seven percent identified e-authentication as the next significant challenge, while 23 percent named remote access for contingency planning, disaster recovery and telework.
RSA Security's survey shows that systems integrators and U.S. government agencies face a multitude of challenges related to HSPD-12 -- obstacles so substantial that 77 percent of the respondents believe that an extension beyond October 2006 will be necessary for U.S. government agencies to achieve FIPS 201 PIV-II compliance.
Other key results include:
* Funding: 18 percent of respondents have identified HSPD-12 funding sources within federal agencies; 48 percent have not.
* Physical and logical access integration: 59 percent report "lack of interoperability" as the most significant challenge to the integration of physical and logical access; 25 percent report "political issues" as the largest obstacle.
* Real-time access changes: More than 80 percent believe the requirement to handle real-time changes to access privileges poses a significant challenge as U.S. federal agencies work to integrate physical and logical access.
* Varying degrees of prioritization: Almost a third of respondents (30 percent) say that HSPD-12 is treated as a high priority by agencies, while about half report that HSPD-12 is viewed as a mid-level priority; and 23 percent say government agencies do not perceive HSPD-12 as a priority.
"This survey underscores the concern among many U.S. federal agencies regarding different facets of HSPD-12, such as specific requirements and funding," says Shannon Kellogg, director of government and industry affairs at RSA Security. "The survey results also indicate that federal agencies are struggling with migration plans over to HSPD-12 compliant systems, and that the systems integrator community has an opportunity to assist these organizations in overcoming the related technological hurdles, such as the interoperability issues, that the agencies face."
RSA Security released the results at the 5th Annual Smart Cards in Government Conference, April 18-20 in Washington, D.C. The survey was conducted online between March 21 and March 31, 2006. Respondents were qualified as U.S.-based systems integrators responsible for supporting U.S. federal government agencies in technology implementations.
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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.
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