Three tapped for PKI

The Office of Management and Budget is requiring agencies to use one of three approved shared-service providers for public-key infrastructure and electronic-signature services.

These three service providers -- the Agriculture Department's National Finance Center; VeriSign Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.; and Betrusted U.S. Inc. of New York -- meet the level-four certification outlined in OMB's December 2003 memo.

In the memo, Karen Evans, OMB's administrator for IT and e-government, and David Safavian, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said agencies must use these shared-service providers to mitigate security risks.