DHS seeks info to get ID management off the ground

The Homeland Security Department is looking for ideas on how to launch a major enterprise-level Identity Management Project for its 180,000 employees, as well as for state, local and federal contractors and officials.

The department has issued a 29-page request for information for a system that could handle up to 2 million authentications daily.

"Identity management has been identified as a strategic issue by the DHS Information Sharing and Collaboration Office and the Office of the CIO," the RFI states. "This requirements document has been developed to support project sizing [cost, schedule and resource planning] by prospective implementing organizations."

According to the document, the project goal is defined as a set of "business processes and supporting infrastructure" for both a centralized access control and "sharing of information."

Access to facilities with established credentials will be linked with "need-to-know" access to applications. The project is "complementary" to separate efforts to create personnel identity cards, as well as creation and management of credentials to access DHS servers, the document said.

Interested parties have until June 15 to notify DHS of their desire to comment.

The department said it hopes to meet "the most crucial DHS needs by the end of calendar year 2005, and may defer other features until 2006 and beyond."