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DoD to set up identity management service

Enterprisewide capability would make information sharing easier, more secure

Federal News Network Staff

October 21, 2008 7:55 am

2 min read

By Jason Miller
Executive Editor
FederalNewsRadio

The Air Force is leading an effort to develop the architecture and design of a Defense Department wide identity service.

This service would provide a single point of access that will define attributes about a person trying to get into a building or on a network.

“There are some key elements you need to have so you know [who the person is] ,” says Dave Wennergren, DoD deputy chief information officer. “The attributes that matter, who they are, where they work, their security clearance, those types of things are needed.”

The Air Force-led tiger team is expected to deliver its draft specifications late in October, he says.

The Enterprise Governance Board then will review the design and have one of the service’s develop it for the rest of DoD.

“One of the purposes of the Enterprise Governance Board is to find the services that need to be deployed enterprisewide and get them in place, make sure they have a business case, they are funded and are being used,” says Wennergren at a recent identity management conference in Washington sponsored by the Information Technology Association of America.

The identity service would be used by each service when they build a portal or for e-mail service instead of building their own. This is same model DoD has used for collaboration services and content delivery services.

“Attribute based, access control is hugely powerful because it enables you to quickly create these dynamic environments where you can share information,” Wennergren says.

Wennergren says most of the work around identity management is an information sharing issue.

He says agencies have to learn to trust one another and trust the decisions they make about who has access to what data.

“Trust must be earned,” Wennergren says. “We’ve done more work with ourselves than with others.”

And this is where secure information sharing must come into play, he says.

This is the idea that DoD will use identity management to control access to data and systems. Each user’s secure identification cards will have their attributes and access privileges.

“We have a vision that we can get on any computer and get your job done,” Wennergren says. “That is not a reality today because there are still too many questions.”

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On the Web:

FederalNewsRadio – DoD set for August rush

FederalNewsRadio – DoD biometrics: miles to go

Government Accountability Office – DOD Needs to Establish Clear Goals and Objectives, Guidance, and a Designated Budget to Manage Its Biometrics Activities (pdf)