VeriSign to aid in Education PIV card issuing

The Education Department met the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 Oct. 27 deadline, requiring all agencies to issue at least one Personal Identification Verification Card, but now it wants to make issuing cards to employees simpler. To accomplish this, the agency awarded a $1.5 million contract to VeriSign of Mountain View, Calif., for its integrated authentication services.

VeriSign will supply the agency with its PIV card management system and shared-service provider, public-key infrastructure (PKI) solution.

The new system lets Education issue PIV cards faster, and it will let the agency fully comply with the mandate sooner. All agency employees and contractors must have a PIV card by October 2008.

The new system is a single platform that lets Education manage the distribution and use of PIV cards and PKI credentials.

Winona Varnon, Education's director of security services, said the VeriSign software makes it possible for the department to deploy an HSPD-12-compliant system "without making costly infrastructure investments. ?"

Education is one of 10 agencies that chose to meet the Oct. 27 deadline on its own.