GPO seeks private sector help with e-IDs

The Government Printing Office is asking the private sector for information and advice regarding secure electronic identification credentialing systems as the agency looks to produce more types of electronic IDs.

Last week, the agency formally requested information on commercial operating systems that run on a variety of digital chips. GPO aims to lower costs and increase efficiency in the production of e-IDs such as federal IDs, e-passports and e-visas.

The research will help it select a commercial operating system that would be a central component of its e-credential manufacturing, the RFI states. GPO is looking for a system that also would allow more than one independent application to run at the same time while separated by firewalls.

If GPO moves forward, the company that makes the system would possibly require access to classified information, so contractors responding to the request must have completed operating-system testing.

Responses are due Aug. 30.

Ben Bain writes for Federal Computer Week, an 1105 Government Information Group publication.