September 1998

Federal Public Key Infrastructure

Steering Committee

Government Information Technology

Services Board

Office of Management and Budget

September 1998
1.1 Background............................................................................ 1

1.2 Purpose of Report ................................................................. 2

1.3 Structure of Report.................................................................3

Section 2. The PKI............................................................................... 5

2.1 Need for a PKI....................................................................... 5

2.2 Description of the PKI .......................................................... 5

2.3 Vision ..................................................................................... 7

Section 3. Environmental Factors and Forecast .................................... 9

3.1 Business................................................................................. 9

3.2 Government........................................................................... 9

3.3 Regulatory ........................................................................... 11

3.4 Public Acceptance and Agency Readiness........................... 13

3.5 Explanation of Public Key Technology................................ 14

Section 4. Principles Governing Federal Role in PKI Development....... 17

4.1 Exercise Federal Leadership................................................ 17

4.2 Use Commercially Available Technology and Products....... 17

4.3 Support Multiple Technologies and

Promote Interoperability ..................................................... 19

4.4 Work Closely with Industry and Other Parties.................... 19

Section 5. Strategy and Actions......................................................... 21

5.1 Security/Privacy Requirments............................................. 23

5.2 Standards and Planning ....................................................... 23

5.2.1 Support Pilot and Demonstration Projects................ 23

5.2.2 Support Resolution of Policy Issues........................... 24

5.2.3 Articulate Specifications and Standards ..................... 24

5.3 Education..............................................................................24

5.3.1 Educate Government Personnel on the New PKI ..... 24

5.3.2 Become a Promoter and Focal Point.......................... 25

5.4 Demonstration of the PKI ................................................... 26

5.4.1 Demonstrate Potential Uses of the Emerging PKI ..... 26

5.4.2 Promote the Development of Common Foundations . 27

5.4.3 Continue Partnership with Industry .......................... 28
5.5.4 Fraud Protection and Prosecution ............................. 31

5.5.5 Records Management and Archival Preservation ....... 31

Section 6. Accomplishments............................................................. 33

6.1 Federal PKI Outreach .......................................................... 33

6.2 Steering Committee’s Working Groups ............................... 34

6.2.1 Technical Working Group........................................... 34

6.2.2 Business Working Group ............................................ 35

6.2.3 Legal and Policy Working Group................................ 36

Section 7. Membership of the Federal PKI Steering Committee.......... 37

Section 8. List of Acronyms .............................................................. 39

Appendices

Appendix A. Essential PKI Management Functions.................. 43

Appendix B. Overview of the PKI Pilot Projects...................... 45

List of Figures

Figure 3.2 Doing Business with the Federal Government ........ 10

Figure 5.1 PKI Strategy .............................................................. 23
increase Internet access to government services by 2000. The report says:

Public confidence in the security of the government’s electronic informa

tion and information technology is essential to creating government ser

vices that are more accessible, efficient, and easy to use. Electronic com

merce, electronic mail, and electronic benefits transfer sensitive informa

tion within government, between the government and private industry o

individuals, and among governments. These electronic systems must pro

tect the information’s confidentiality, assure that the information is no

altered in an unauthorized way, and be available when needed.

This report, Access with Trust, describes an essential technological and inst

tutional means of fostering safe, secure electronic interactions, a Public Ke

Infrastructure or “PKI.” Access with Trust focuses on how the Federal govern

ment will promote and use a PKI to safeguard and protect electronic interac

tions internally (among Federal government employees and agencies) an

externally (between the Federal government and its many trading partner

state and local governments, businesses, and individuals).

Our partners in this effort will be other governments (domestic and foreign)

colleges and universities, banks and other businesses, and non-profit organiza

tions and advocacy groups, as well as those private-sector technolog

providers from whose products and services the infrastructure is built. In oth

er words,this will be a collaborative effort,not a “government”solution or eve

one in which the government plays the principal role.

We hope that Access with Trust will help you learn more about how thi

important technology is providing Americans with secure and private elec

tronic access to government services.

Greg Woods

Chair, Government Information

Technology Services Board

G. Edward DeSeve

Acting Deputy Director for Management

Office of Management and Budget

Richard Guida

Chair, Federal PKI Steering Committee
change is the need for government to support and promote an elec

tronic means of communicating and interacting with citizens and

companies, to make government work better and cost less. With

over sixty million adults in the United States alone having access to

the Internet, and thousands of U.S. companies hosting sites on the

World Wide Web, interacting with the government electronically

(“electronic government”) can affect a wide diversity of constituents in profound ways.

Access America1 is Vice President Gore’s 1997 report outlining

steps to encourage and increase citizen and business access via the

Internet to the most commonly requested government services by

2000. To make this vision a success,the American people must have

confidence that government systems with which they interact electronically provide adequate security and privacy safeguards.

This report, Access with Trust, describes Federal government goals

and efforts to develop a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). Properly

implemented in concert with other security services,the PKI serves

as a fundamental building block for a broad spectrum of electronic

commerce and government communications, all done in a fashion

which protects the privacy of citizens and companies and gives

them the confidence to use this new medium of communication

routinely, frequently, and effectively. The report discusses the value

of a PKI, and how the Federal government is promoting one

through a careful process of adopting and implementing standards

in cooperation with industry, articulating sound business practices

governing agency use of the PKI, and conducting pilot demonstration projects to explore the many ways in which public key technology can enhance agency operations and interactions with citizens and companies. The report further describes how the Federal

government’s efforts are ultimately intended to complement the

many projects which private industry is pursuing using public key

1. Access America, Reengineering Through Information Technology, Report of the National

Performance Review and the Government Information Technology Services Board,

Vice President Al Gore, February 3, 1997, available at gits.gov.
The authors of this report, representing virtually every major Federal agency, hope that it fulfills the needs of each person who reads

it, just as the PKI which the report describes will meet the needs of

all who use it.
the Internet for commercial and

private purposes, and the application of computers to an ever

expanding number of tasks, all

provide the Federal government with unique opportunities for

improving service to the American people. Through the National

Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) and associated

agency reinvention efforts, a new vision of government is emerging,

one where residents will use electronic pathways to get government

information and services, will communicate their views electronically, and will get quick and accurate answers to their questions.

Over sixty million U.S. citizens have access to the Internet, and

thousands of U.S. companies host sites on the World Wide Web,so

the potential utility of this medium for government and business

purposes is obvious. And there is substantial room for growth. In

the commercial sector, only 13 percent of U.S. users made purchases over the Internet in 1997, and total purchases were estimated at $4 billion - less than one percent of all consumer retail sales.

Thus, while many consumers use the Internet to become better

informed, concerns over privacy and security have affected its use

as a medium for purchases.

1

Examples of Electronic Services and Information:

• Students applying for loans on-line, and using their schoolissued identification cards to do business with the government over the Internet.

•Parents checking the performance of schools and the environmental quality of neighborhoods when looking for a

new home.

•Adults getting information on medications or paying their

taxes without leaving home.

flourish in a trusted environme
Public confidence in the security of the government’s electronic information and information technology is essential

to creating government services that are more accessible, efficient, and easy to use. Electronic commerce, electronic mail,

and electronic benefits transfer sensitive information within

government, between the government and private industry

or individuals, and among governments. These electronic

systems must protect the information’s confidentiality, assure

that the information is not altered in an unauthorized way,

and be available when needed. A corresponding policy and

management structure must support those protections.

To achieve the vision, participants must be able to trust this new

way of doing business. Both service providers and customers must

be able to get and provide information and conduct other transactions with the confidence that security and privacy will be maintained. To facilitate this access with trust, all partners — the Federal government,states, localities, businesses, banks,schools, and citizens — must find ways to cooperate in building a public key infrastructure to promote and support these new relationships.

1.2 Purpose of Report

This report is entitled Access with Trust because it describes an essential component of the emerging technological and institutional environment in which trust can flourish. This component is called a Public Key Infrastructure or “PKI”

because it is based on a security

technique called “public key

cryptography.” The infrastructure fosters safe, secure interactions between parties involved

in an electronic transaction.

2

Access With Trust describes how

the use of public key technology

can help create a trusted electronic environment. 

2. Access America, Reengineering Through Information Technology, Report of the National

Performance Review and the Government Information Technology Services Board,

Vice President Al Gore, February 3, 1997, available at gits.gov.
ggg

banks and other businesses, and non-profit organizations and advocacy groups. In particular, our partners will include those privatesector technology providers from whose products and services the

infrastructure is built.

The central organization representing the Federal government in

this effort is the Federal Public Key Infrastructure Steering Committee (“Steering Committee”), which operates under the Government Information Technology Services Board, a body established

under Presidential Executive Order 13011 to promote the use of

information technology within Federal agencies to improve services and reduce costs. Building upon efforts completed to date,

the Steering Committee is working with other groups within and

outside the government to promote and implement ambitious PKI

applications to show how this technology can support government

functions and activities in a world of trustworthy electronic communications.

1.3 Structure of Report

Access With Trust is intended for a variety of audiences. Members

of Congress and their staffs may find this report helpful in better

understanding the emerging PKI and some of its legislative and policy ramifications. Senior administration officials may find it useful

when drafting policies dealing with the PKI. Companies which provide or use telecommunications or data processing services may

glean information helpful to their interests. Finally, anyone interested in learning more about the PKI should find this report useful.

3
• How external factors are shaping the future of the PKI;and 

• The status of the PKI today,along with current Federal government plans for building and using this infrastructure.
tiality have been well publicized

and have become part of the

public debate on the future of

communications in general and

“The Information Superhighway” in particular. The Federal

government must meet those

challenges while supporting the

NPR’s goal of modernizing Federal government business processes

by conducting those processes electronically. Accomplishing these

objectives requires the proper and timely use of security services so

that businesses and the public operate in a trusted environment.

Development and implementation of the PKI helps provide that

trusted environment.

Research and pilot projects performed in recent years have shown

that the PKI will need to use public key technology and standards,

be fully interoperable among agencies and applications, and be recognized internationally. In the near term, the government will use

the PKI in support of the NPR goals. The PKI will be used primarily to authenticate users and data, protect the integrity of transmitted data, and ensure the non-repudiation and confidentiality of data.

Other necessary security measures,such as protection against unauthorized access to systems and data, will be provided through separate security mechanisms and policies. Used in conjunction with

these security mechanisms and policies,the PKI will form an important part of the basis for the trusted environment needed for transactions with the public and other trading partners to proceed.

2.2 Description of the PKI

The PKI is not only software or hardware. It is an infrastructure,

that is, a combination of products, services, facilities, policies, procedures, agreements, and people that provides for and sustains

secure interactions on open networks such as the Internet. It is not

a single monolithic entity, but a distributed system in which the

component elements may include multiple agency-specific public

5

A Public Key Infrastructure (P

provides the elements needed 

a trusted environme
A critical goal in developing the PKI is ensuring that it meets the

needs of its users without undue complexity or cost. This is no

small matter, because potential users represent a broad spectrum,

ranging from those who need a modest level of security and cannot

tolerate substantial expense for that purpose, to those who need

much higher levels of security and are willing to incur the expenses associated with those services. The PKI will need to be extensible, that is, capable of satisfying this spectrum of users and accommodating the environments in which they operate.

For more detailed information about public key security services

and functions, please refer to Appendix A.

6

Through digital signatures and encryption, the PKI will

provide four basic security services:

• Authentication — Ensure that transmissions and messages, and their originators, are authentic, and that a recipient is eligible to receive specific categories of information.

• Data Integrity — Ensure that data is unchanged from its

source and has not been accidentally or maliciously

altered.

• Nonrepudiation — Ensure strong and substantial evidence is available to the sender of data that the data has

been delivered (with the cooperation of the recipient),

and, to the recipient, of the sender’s identity, sufficient to

prevent either from successfully denying having sent or

received the data. This includes the ability of a third party

to verify the integrity and origin of the data.

• Confidentiality — Ensure that information can be read

only by authorized entities.
actions among individuals, companies, and organizations where

there is no direct Federal government presence. Thus, the PKI discussed in this report must be designed and built in close cooperation with the private sector.

Bearing in mind the needs of

Federal customers,the PKI must

be secure,reliable,flexible, costeffective, and provide a level of

assurance based on the requirements of each application while

ensuring proper privacy protection. To accomplish these goals,the

Federal government must:

•Identify its own business requirements and the requirements of

its customers;

•Prepare and implement appropriate standards in cooperation

with industry;

•Articulate sound business practices governing agency use of the

PKI;

•Conduct pilot demonstration projects to explore the many

ways in which public key technology can enhance agency operations and promote interactions with citizens and companies;

•Define and develop, in cooperation with the private sector, the

model policies, contracts, and other security services necessary

to ensure the maturation and more expansive use of the PKI;

and

•Develop and implement mechanisms to measure the Federal

government’s progress in accomplishing PKI goals.

7

The PKI must be designed a

built in close cooperation w

the private sec
common to public key technology.

3.1 Business 

In the private sector, the ability to interact and exchange information electronically within a company, along with conducting electronic commerce over the Internet, has drastically changed how

business is done. Entire management

layers are now being replaced with distributed management models that

allow information to be disseminated

quickly throughout an organization.

Instead of reporting to the office each

day, many employees now work from

home or from a customer’s site,

exchanging messages and other information via the Internet. Individuals

and companies worldwide can now transact business with each

other over the Internet. Important industry markets,such as banking — a pioneer in using technology to improve service to its customers — are now investing heavily in advanced technologies to

offer such services as Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), and Debit/Credit Cards.

Individuals now expect to be able to interact electronically with

businesses, expect to use banking services from their homes, and

expect industry to update frequently those products which serve

these functions to provide greater capabilities. Businesses risk losing customers and market share if they fail to provide such services.

3.2 Government 

The same customers who use business

services expect commensurate service

from all levels of government. If they

can interact electronically with businesses using open networks, they

should be able to interact with government in the same manner. Consumers

9

Convenience, efficien

of operation, and cu

tomer satisfaction dr

businesses to use ele

tronic commer

The same desires an

advantages are drivi

the Federal government 

offer electronic servic

to citize
should not have to wait days or weeks to get needed information or

benefits. Fortunately, electronic mechanisms allow government to

provide those services in a timely and efficient fashion. Thus, much

like industry, the government in general, and the Federal government in particular, must transform itself so that it too can benefit

from what technology offers.

The Federal government has a large and diverse customer base with

which it needs to interact. As shown in Figure 3.2,the government’s

customers range from individual citizens, who may require infrequent interaction,to large corporations,who may interact often and

in a variety of ways. It does not matter with whom the government

interacts, how frequent the interaction is, or how the interaction is

accomplished; the government is always expected to provide, and

should provide, high quality service in a timely manner.

Just like the private sector, the Federal government is under pressure to streamline its business processes to allow it to take advantage of the opportunities the PKI provides. Governments are the

10

Government-Government

Interact with foreign,

state, and local governments to carry out mission

Government-Citizens

Interact with private citizens to meet the needs of

each citizen

Government-Business

Interact with industry to

obtain goods and services

Federal agencies to

accomplish mission Government-Industry

Interact with industry

to ensure compliance

with Federal laws,

regulations, and standards Federal Government

Agency
3.3 Regulatory

Today’s business practices within the Federal government, state

and local government, and private industry are backed by several

hundred years of legislative, regulatory and judicial actions, decisions,

and policies designed to protect

parties from loss or fraud in a business transaction. Most of these business practices are so well understood and routine — like written

signatures and certified mail — that

we rarely think about the legal or

other functions they accomplish.

Thus, statutory and regulatory provisions commonly specify that communications be “in writing,”

“signed,” “verified,” or “acknowledged.”These principles have become so universal that most routine paper-based communications, particularly forms, contain a

requirement for a signature even in the absence of any specific

legal or administrative directive that an original autograph signature actually be affixed. Yet, while meeting legal requirements

may hinge on the written signature, the underlying trust relationship between the parties rarely does.

In electronic communication environments,trust techniques must

be designed to satisfy each party to the transaction. In effect, the

trust relationship must be supported as part of the transaction for

the parties to accept that transaction as valid. At a minimum, the

following four requirements must be satisfied to ensure a trusted

electronic transaction:

•The information sender and information recipient need to be

identified so the parties know where the information is coming from and that it is going to the right party.

11

Electronic transactio

depend upon a trusted en

ronment, where informati

is kept confidential, 

integrity is ensured, use

can be authenticated, a

transactions cannot 

repudiate
tected from unauthorized access during transit.

These requirements correspond to the security services that the

PKI will provide (see Section 2.2). A PKI which satisfies these

four requirements will support Federal government assurances to

its citizens and its trading partners that transactions are trustworthy.

Many initiatives are underway to promote secure electronic service

delivery and practices within the United States. Many international, Federal, State, and private sector organizations are addressing

domestic and international laws and policies. The American Bar

Association and the American Bankers Association are keenly interested in helping define the use and potential impacts of the PKI.

While State and Federal legislative and executive bodies consider

how to promote secure electronic transactions, other organizations

— government, academic, and professional — are developing formal or de-facto standards for electronic service delivery.

With this evolutionary process underway, the Federal government

must face a number of legal and policy challenges ranging from the

legal structure of the business relationships between the providers

12

How will the Government use the PKI?

•To improve the public’s access to government services and

information;

•To improve the flow of information within and among the

different levels, branches and agencies of government;

•To reduce government operating costs while improving

the quality of the service; and

•To improve the security of unclassified government information systems.
pgy 

The impact of computerization on commerce will be as great as that

of the industrial revolution. Electronic messaging and Internet-based

techniques, hold great promise to become the preferred methods of

communicating administrative and business information.

The public has shown that it is increasingly willing to use the Internet and other electronic means to transact business. While these

transactions often involve private information,some may need lesser degrees of protection than others. For example, ordering free

government or commercial publications may require less protection than purchasing materials from the government or transferring

funds using a credit card. In many transactions, it is important that

the least amount of information about the requester be required

and provided so as to preserve privacy. In general, the widespread

use of techniques for electronic service delivery will occur only if

the transactions actually have, and are perceived to have, a degree

of security which is at least as good

as equivalent paper-based delivery

systems. In many cases, the actual

and perceived levels of security will

need to be far higher to allay concerns about relying on new technology to conduct transactions.

While the Internet has been an effective distribution channel for general

information, using it for financial or confidential business communications will be made easier by the spread of PKI services. The general public is already starting to benefit from such services as they are

used by the automotive,financial, and credit card industries.

While the Federal government gradually implements the use of PKI,

it will continue to use other identity mechanisms,such as Personal

Identification Numbers (PINs) and passwords. These are among the

interim security measures for completing financial transactions

electronically in the business world today (e.g., on-line banking,

automatic teller machines). Most individuals have at least one PIN

13

To succeed, the PKI m

provide a level of assura

for users which is grea

than that afforded by secu

measures currently in pla
approach (confidentiality, integrity, authentication and nonrepudiation), they nonetheless allow Federal agencies to move away from

traditional “pen-to-paper” methods,thereby reducing the cost, delay

and complexity associated with that form of authentication.

Indeed,where it is possible to verify the identity of a service or benefit recipient (through face-to-face authentication or some other

means of establishing identity), PINs and passwords may support

better fraud detection and prevention than pen-to-paper signatures.

As a result, many Federal agencies, especially those with heterogeneous client bases with varying degrees of technological sophistication, may choose to use PINs and passwords as interim steps.

Over time, it will be possible to supplement or replace these forms

of electronic authentication with other elements of the PKI to facilitate the transition from paper-based authentication.

3.5 Explanation of Public Key Technology 

Public key technology depends upon complicated mathematical

concepts but it has a simple, understandable effect:When an individual (we will call him “Bob”) starts to participate in the PKI, he

begins with a pair of “keys,” which look like very long character

strings and are actually digital representations of very large numbers. These keys are either chosen by Bob or provided through

trustworthy mechanisms, subject to certain mathematical requirements. One of these keys is secret (private) and the other is published (public).

The essence of public key technology is that messages or transactions authenticated or encrypted using one of Bob’s keys can

only be verified or decrypted

using his other key. Thus, when

Bob uses his private key to sign

an electronic message or other

transaction digitally, anyone who

knows Bob’s corresponding pub

14

Public key technology uses

two “keys” (character strings)

that are mathmatically bound.

One is kept private, the other

is made public, and the former cannot be deduced from

the latter.
her “Alice”) wants to obtain with certainty Bob’s public key,she may

get Bob’s certificate from Bob in person, or she may get it from an

on-line “repository” for certificates,or even from Bob’s homepage on

the World Wide Web. Where or how Alice gets Bob’s certificate is not

important,because she validates the certificate by validating the CA’s

digital signature. Alice now knows Bob’s public key and name with

certainty and can validate any messages sent to her which were

signed with Bob’s private key. These transactions may be conducted

with assurance even though Bob and Alice may have never met.

To validate the CA’s signature on Bob’s certificate,Alice must first

know the public key of Bob’s CA. Alice only needs to know the

public key of one CA that she trusts. CAs may issue certificates to

each other. If Alice does not know the public key of Bob’s CA,she

can find a certificate issued by a CA whose key she does know,that

will certify the public key of Bob’s CA. Much of the challenge of

building a robust global PKI is in the management of certificates

among CAs, as well as the software and infrastructure that automate

the process of building and validating these trust chains of certificates. A Model Certificate Policy document for Federal government

use is being prepared to promote this process, discussed further in

Section 5 below.

As a general matter, good security practices will permit and encourage Bob to have different public-private key pairs for signature and

confidentiality uses, and to reflect his different roles (e.g., as an

agency official, and as a private citizen and consumer). This is analogous to a person having different passwords for use on different

computer systems, or different PINs for use with different financial

accounts.

The scientific, academic, and business communities recognize that

the capabilities described above provide the best way to replace

handwritten signatures in the electronic world, to authenticate

identities securely, and to maintain confidentiality on open networks.

15
16
requirements. To ensure that it does so, the Government Information Technology Services (GITS) Board established a formal government-wide committee, known as the Federal Public Key Infrastructure Steering Committee, to provide leadership within the Federal

government during development and

implementation of the PKI. The Steering Committee, chaired by the GITS

Board Champion for Security, comprises senior-level representatives from all

involved Federal agencies.

The Steering Committee believes that

the Federal role in developing and promoting the PKI must be guided by the

following principles:

•The Federal government must use commercially available technology and products which support the goal of demonstrating,

on a convincing scale with a diverse set of applications and customers, that the PKI can transform the manner in which individuals and organizations interact with government in beneficial ways;

•The Federal government must encourage industry to build

products which are interoperable and extensible, making sure

that Federal programs can take advantage of later marketplace

changes and improvements;

•The Federal government must support multiple technologies,

resisting the temptation to settle on a single “Federal” solution,

and in doing so promote a relationship with business, industry,

other governments, advocacy groups and other parties to

ensure that their interests are understood and considered.

4.2 Use Commercially Available Technology and Products 

Even though Federal government and government-related applications for information security represent a large and diverse cus

17

The Federal Public Key Infrastructure Steering Committee

works to coordinate Federal

agency activities and make

them interoperable.
tomer base for new security and privacy solutions,few of the needs

and requirements of the government (particularly in the realm of

unclassified information) differ fundamentally from those of the

business world. Most security solutions will be developed by private industry and will be offered to a broader customer base as offthe-shelf products or services. Even when there are unique, government-specific security infrastructure requirements,privately developed and commercially offered

solutions may satisfy such needs.

The selection of commercially

available technology and products

should help demonstrate successful use of a PKI across multiple

18

The Federal government

wants to use and promote the

development of commercial

products for its PKI.

p(, ppy) 

ment, and with the capability of being scaleable (that is,

able to support a much larger base of users);

•Identify, develop, implement and promote pilot applications that:

- demonstrate the usefulness of public key technologies,

- work with public and private sector partners,

- support a variety of security requirements and transaction volumes,

- support interoperation among applications, creating

greater value for our trading partners;

•Provide support and assistance to Federal agencies and

organizations in modifying their programs and applications to take advantage of the PKI, including educating

senior officials within the government on the uses and

benefits of a PKI; and

•Support programs and projects such that efforts are coordinated with other domestic and international bodies.
pppg

Interoperability

Industry has developed many different mechanisms for establishing

a PKI. For example,several different encryption algorithms and digital signature schemes are in widespread use, both inside and outside of the government. Even when multiple vendors use the same

basic technology, their implementations of the technology are not

necessarily compatible or interoperable.

While the Steering Committee and other Federal policy-setting bodies aggressively promote compatibility and interoperability within

the government infrastructure, the

PKI must be flexible enough to

accommodate a range of solutions for

any given application, and to address

the varying requirements and programmatic concerns of individual

government agencies. Thus, pursuit

of commonality and interoperability does not mean that the government must dictate a technical solution. In general, prescribing

specific solutions would impede technological progress and constrain available business opportunities for commercial vendors. The

viability and acceptability of commercially offered public key solutions will be market driven, allowing the PKI to be developed in

response to government and commercial business needs.

4.4 Work Closely with Industry and Other Parties

Since the private sector will lead the development and implementation of security solutions, the Federal government must interact

directly and continuously with private industry. We must articulate

to industry our needs as a customer,reflecting an understanding of

the commercial offerings and how commercially available information security technology and products can be applied. To promote

these actions,the government will develop partnerships with interested commercial service and product providers.

19

Diversity in the use a

selection of products, a

interoperability, are criti
mittee will maintain cognizance

of the end-user applications and

commercially available public

key cryptographic products. The

Steering Committee will ensure

that both the requisite user and

customer security products are considered and that infrastructure

support services for those products exist. Further, where technology and implementation approaches allow, the Steering Committee

will seek to foster long-term commonality among services, implementations, and interoperability among offered products. Finally,

the Steering Committee will work to resolve all of the issues which

may impede implementation of the PKI; several of these are set

forth in Section 5 below.

20

companies in the Federal PKI

efforts has been and remains a

priority.
ing groups to address specific areas of interest in the development

of the PKI:

•The Business Working Group

(BWG) which concentrates on

identifying user requirements

and applications that the PKI

will need to support;

•The Technical Working Group

(TWG) which addresses issues

related to technology, specifications,standards, and interoperability; and

•The Legal and Policy Working Group (LPWG) which addresses

policy, legal, and liability issues.

Members from each group work closely with commercial

providers, agency representatives, other governments and advocacy

groups to explore issues within its assigned domain. As necessary,

each group refers technical or policy issues to the Steering Committee for resolution or assignment to another working group.

The working groups will identify activities to support development

and implementation of the PKI. Lead agencies will be assigned

which, with the support of other interested organizations, will be

responsible for developing detailed plans and schedules to ensure

completion of those assigned activities by established deadlines.

These lead agencies may establish multi-agency groups as deemed

necessary for the fulfillment of their assignments.

The Steering Committee has implemented an overall strategy,

shown in Figure 5.1, to promote development and implementation

of a robust PKI.

21

The Federal PKI Steeri

Committee focuses on th

areas: technical matte

legal and policy issues, a

agency business applicatio
22

5.2 Standards and Planning

• 5.2.1 Support Pilot and

Demonstration Projects

• 5.2.2 Support Resolution

of Policy Issues

• 5.2.3 Articulate Specifications and Standards

5.3 Education

• 5.3.1 Educate Government Personnel on the

new PKI

• 5.3.2 Become a Promoter and a Focal

Point

5.4 Demonstration of the PKI

• 5.4.1 Demonstrate Potential Uses of the Emerging

PKI

• 5.4.2 Promote the Development of Common Foundations

• 5.4.3 Continue Partnership

with Industry

• 5.4.4 Explore Encryption

Key Recovery

5.5 Other Issues

• 5.5.1 Identity Proofing

• 5.5.2 Interoperability

• 5.5.3 Liability

• 5.5.4 Fraud Protection

and Prosecution

• 5.5.5 Records Management and Archival

Preservation

Establish the PKI
with their government through electronic access to government services and information;

•Helping Federal agencies identify business opportunities (and

the associated security and privacy requirements) for electronic access applications, including consultation with affected

interest groups and other parties; and

•Providing a forum for the

exchange of information on the

PKI, security architecture, applications, products, interoperability,

and various PKI pilot programs.

Articulating requirements forms a useful framework for action,but it is not a

one-time event. Requirements can be

reevaluated and adjusted based on new information, experience

with prototypes and pilot efforts, evolution of technology, and

changes in business practices and the marketplace. The goal is not

to solidify a fixed requirement or “specification” for the final PKI,

but rather to ensure all user needs are being addressed as the infrastructure develops.

5.2 Standards and Planning 

5.2.1 SUPPORT PILOT AND DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS. The Steering Committee plans to play a pivotal role in helping agencies deliver services electronically by sponsoring, supporting and encouraging pilot and demonstration projects. Appendix B

identifies and discusses more than twenty projects which the Steering Committee has determined to be suited for this purpose. The Steering

Committee will work closely with the Office of

the Vice President, the National Partnership for

Reinventing Government and Federal agencies

and their partners in the major service-delivery

demonstrations that are part of the Access Amer

23

The starting place is de

ing agency business ne

which may be fulfilled b

PKI-based solut

Agency pilot 

demonstrat

efforts can p

vide good f

ste
groups,steering committees, and policy-making

bodies, as appropriate, for resolution of critical policy issues needed to support the development of the PKI. There is growing agreement that most authentication and signature

concerns can be addressed within the context of existing legal doctrine in conjunction

with adequate audit and record-keeping controls. The Steering Committee is encouraging

acceptance of digital signatures and electronic certificates by working closely with organizations, such as the American Bar Association and the American Bankers Association, and by developing a

Model Certificate Policy for the Federal government.

5.2.3 ARTICULATE SPECIFICATIONS AND STANDARDS. The Steering

Committee is fostering public/private partnerships to articulate

appropriate specifications and standards. For example, under a

Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) sponsored by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST),

government and private industry representatives

worked together successfully to identify minimum specifications for components of the PKI

to promote their interoperability and to ensure a

robust infrastructure design. The CRADA established a collegial working environment between

government and industry necessary for the conduct of such complex technical work.

5.3 Education

5.3.1 EDUCATE GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL ON THE NEW PKI. The

new PKI will be developed using advanced,state-of-the-art technology. It will almost certainly require reengineering business processes within each agency to realize fully the technology’s promise of a

transformed America. Because most of the underlying technology is

new, few senior agency officials are familiar with it, or the benefits

24

Addressing and

resolving policy

issues must be done

in cooperation with

parties outside the

Federal government.

The Federal PKI

architecture must

be standardsbased.
5.3.2 BECOME A PROMOTER AND A

FOCAL POINT. To date, the Steering Committee has been the focal

point for coordinating and promoting the use of public key technology in Federal agencies. In the future, the Steering Committee

will become the champion for the PKI,emphasizing long-term compatibility, commonality, and interoperability. The relevant security

and privacy technologies will continue their rapid evolution.

Unless the Steering Committee provides effective leadership, government efforts are likely to produce results counter to these objectives. For example, on-going government pilot programs are being

managed by individual agencies, and absent

the Steering Committee, there is no other

interagency mechanism for coordination or

communication of these efforts. In addition,

many commercial vendors have become

active in developing public key products,services, and security solutions that, for the most

part, do not meet current government standards. There is insufficient industry movement to adhere to common specifications or

to promote interoperability with competitors’

products. A number of different key generation algorithms, digital signature methods, and

infrastructure services are being marketed or developed, but even

when they are based on the same underlying PKI technology, their

implementations can be incompatible with each other.

The Steering Committee believes that competition among commercial vendors is healthy and that attempts to restrain natural market forces can have unintended and undesirable effects. At the

same time, the Steering Committee is working to achieve tighter

coupling and better coordination of government activities. In particular, the Steering Committee hopes to act as a focal point with

industry to promote interoperability by:

25

The Federal P

Steering Committ

must promote f

and objective co

sideration by age

cies of public k

technolo
g g g g 

awareness of PKI technology and its applications; and

•Evaluating how commercial products may be assessed to determine their suitability for use within the PKI, and facilitating

demonstrations of commercial products or services for a government audience.

5.4 Demonstration of the PKI 

5.4.1 DEMONSTRATE POTENTIAL USES OF THE EMERGING PKI. Pilot

programs and demonstrations can help define the PKI,not only in developing and implementing current state-of-the-art technology but in

attempting to satisfy the business needs of each agency. Collectively,

they constitute an important vehicle for

getting feedback from users on operational

and performance characteristics, and also

for assessing subtle procedural and management issues.

Information about each pilot is being used

to evaluate contributions to the infrastructure from a technology or standards viewpoint. The information includes:

•The functionality and security services being implemented;

•The hardware and software being used;

•A description of whom the services support, the size of the user

population,and their specific applications;

•The costs and benefits of the specific applications;

•The specific technology used for functions,such as traffic encryption,key exchange,signature,or hashing (i.e.,the algorithms and key

lengths,and any specific national or international standards that are

being adopted);

•Contractor(s) involved;

26

To show that a PKI

works, you must

demonstrate it in

real-life applications that touch

people’s lives in a

positive way.
q

5.4.2 PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMON FOUNDATIONS. To

date,the PKI pilots and demonstrations have been separate, isolated,

single-vendor initiatives. Three cross-cutting initiatives, described

below, are planned or underway with the goal of relating the PKI

pilots to current private sector efforts.

The first initiative is the Access Certificates for Electronic Services

(ACES) Project,which is aimed at delivering public key certificates to

the general public to facilitate secure access to government services.

The goal of this project is to provide an expandable foundation to stimulate the widespread

issuance of public key certificates and support

the use of digital signatures as an authentication and document integrity technology. It is

hoped that the ACES Project can be used to

evaluate the adoption of a uniform and simple

identity certificate, thus promoting interoperability among agency implementations.

The second initiative is to create a Federal Policy Management Authority (PMA) which

would serve a policy-enabling function. In

particular, the PMA would help each Federal

agency desiring to use public key technology

for an application to determine how to proceed thoughtfully and in

a fashion which supports to the greatest extent reasonable and

practical the goal of PKI interoperability. For example, the PMA

would serve to help agencies create and implement uniform or consistent PKI policies and practices as set forth in instruments such as

Certificate Policies, Certification Practice Statements (where the

agency is running a Certification Authority), and concept of operations documents. The PMA may also oversee the function of a

“Bridge CA” with which agencies can cause their CAs to interoperate, in the expectation that any CA which interoperates with such a

“Bridge CA” will be able to interoperate with others that have done

the same.

27

The buildi

blocks for a P

must be carefu

prepared, and pi

efforts must 

woven together 

make a cohes

who
g

pilot EGS effort was featured in Access America. With funding from

the Key Recovery Demonstration Project,secure features including

digital signatures, encryption, and key recovery, have been added to

the EGS pilot. This pilot is being tested with state government and

university partners. Following completion of this testing, full EGS

development can begin.

5.4.3 CONTINUE PARTNERSHIP WITH INDUSTRY. The Steering Committee intends to continue an open dialogue with a number of

commercial entities (i.e., consultants, product developers, and service providers) about government requirements and industry products and standards. In most cases, discussions will occur without

an established contractual relationship between the government

and the vendor and without the immediate commitment of government funding. However, vehicles such as NIST’s CRADA program will continue to be used to ensure formalized industry

involvement in the development of the PKI. Through these informal and formal mechanisms, industry and government will continue to form a strong partnership and develop

the PKI jointly.

5.4.4 EXPLORING ENCRYPTION KEY RECOVERY.

The Key Recovery Demonstration Project

(KRDP) was initiated for the purpose of

“demonstrating the practicability of a key

recovery encryption regime as an element of

a Key Management Infrastructure (KMI)/PKI.”

This effort involved keys used for data encryption, not those used

for digital signatures, to avoid undermining non-repudiation and

authentication. During 1997, thirteen government pilots demonstrated that key recovery can be successfully implemented in Federal government applications. Results gained from these pilots are

currently being collected and analyzed with a final report expected

by late 1998.

The Federal government will use feedback from these and future

pilots, along with input from private industry and the American

28

We must proceed

in close collaboration with private

companies.
5.5.1 IDENTITY PROOFING. The Steering Committee must define a minimum set of standards for confirming the identity of a certificate holder (“identity proofing”) in

order to allow the certificate to be acceptable for use by Federal

agencies. Such standards may involve requiring the holder to present himself or herself to the Certificate Authority with a photo

identification or other proof that the person is who he or she claims

to be.

As described above, a public key certificate “binds” an individual’s

public key to his or her identity. While robust identity proofing is

important to the PKI, it takes on a different aspect for the Federal

government because of concerns with protecting the privacy of

government customers. Therefore,we must pay particular attention

to the methods used to identify an individual and the process which

supports that binding.

A sufficiently robust identity proofing

mechanism will, for example:

•Gather proofs of identity that can

be linked to legacy databases to verify the existence of the individual;

•Incorporate methods to verify the

identity being “proofed” belongs

to the individual requesting the certificate;

•Cross-verify a set of data elements as part of the verification

process; and

•Perform all of the functions in compliance with the Privacy Act.

In this vein, it should be emphasized that for many applications,

identity-based authentication is not only unnecessary, it may be

inappropriate. Agencies will need to consider carefully which applications require user authentication (e.g., to protect private infor

29

For a PKI to work, a

individual’s public ke

must be properly bound 

that individual’s identit
the Steering Committee has endorsed the Minimum Interoperability Specification for PKI Components (MISPC), that was jointly

developed by NIST with leading PKI technology developers (see

Section 6 below). The MISPC allows great flexibility for agencies

because it specifies minimum interoperability, and describes the

broad range of considerations to achieve that requirement (e.g.

hierarchical and networked architectures, certificate format and

certificate validation path protocols).

In general, agencies will be urged to follow two guiding principles: simplicity and modularity of design, so that the systems are

extensible, providing the functionality

desired by each group of users without unnecessary expense and effort.

Since the public key infrastructure is

evolving with changes in the market

place, Federal system designs that

incorporate these principles not only

will be easier to build, but also easier

to change. In order to provide further guidance in this important

area, the Steering Committee will identify current open commercial standards that embody the above principles, and then publish

its results on the gits.gov website.

5.5.3 LIABILITY. Deploying a comprehensive PKI will require agreement by all parties of an acceptable liability structure that balances

the interests of users and service providers, particularly CAs, both

governmental and non-governmental. Also required are the consumer protection standards to govern “retail” uses of the PKI. Recognizing that the Federal government already operates under legislation establishing its legal liabilities in many areas (for example,the

Federal Tort Claims Act), the present common law, contract-based

operating rules which govern the conduct of credit card issuers and

banks inform the development of the PKI liability structure. Regulatory consumer protection standards, analogous to those that govern consumer use of credit and debit cards and checks, may ultimately be needed. Domestically, groups including the American Bar

30

Agency implementations

of PKIs need to promote

interoperability among

those agencies.
pppy

structure has yet to emerge. The Federal government will be an active participant in

developing this consensus.

5.5.4 FRAUD PROTECTION AND PROSECUTION.

Historically, for many government transactions, handwritten signatures and paper documents have been relied upon to establish

the connection between an action and the

individual and government entities who are

parties to that action. There are concerns in the law enforcement

community that PKI could weaken the government’s ability to prosecute fraud successfully because of the absence of traditional penand-ink documentation. The Steering Committee will work to

understand and address these

concerns.

5.5.5 RECORDS MANAGEMENT

AND ARCHIVAL PRESERVATION.

The National Archives and

Records Administration

(NARA) is responsible for storing important government

information indefinitely for

use by historians and other

parties. Properly executing this

responsibility creates several issues.

•Since the ability to decrypt encrypted information stored for an

indefinite period is uncertain even if measures are taken to

store the related keys (any defect in the key resulting from the

passage of time could render the information unrecoverable), it

is very unlikely that NARA will accept encrypted data for

archival purposes.

•When NARA accepts records which are digitally signed,the certificate or some other information must uniquely link the digi

31

established in l

but because 

technology and 

use are evolvi

there is little ca

law available 

guide the judici

Use of public key technology 

intended to reduce the potent

for fraud, but there are la

enforcement concerns which ne

to be identified and addressed 

that goal is to be achiev
maintain digital records for long

periods of time must address similar concerns, including ensuring

that encryption keys are preserved if encrypted records must be

kept, and establishing and maintaining the provenance of digital signatures contained in records for legal or other purposes.

32
50 agency representatives. The Steering Committee and its working

groups meet monthly to address issues and to adopt various resolutions promoting the development of the PKI. For example, the

Steering Committee adopted the PKI interoperability specification

jointly developed by industry and government and identified in

Minimum Interoperability Specification for PKI Components

(MISPC), Version 13. The Steering Committee has also adopted a

resolution supporting the development and implementation of multiple CAs in the Federal government. The focus of these efforts is to

ensure that the building blocks needed for a PKI are in place, and

that Federal agencies are made aware of capabilities provided by

the PKI so that they can make intelligent decisions on the use of

public key technology to facilitate their internal operations and

interactions with the public.

6.1 Federal PKI Outreach

The Steering Committee held a two-day meeting in May, 1997 that

addressed various aspects of developing the PKI, such as procurement vehicles, budget options,state and local government partnerships, and business uses of the PKI technology. Results of this meeting have been incorporated into the Steering Committee’s future

planning activities, which can be

found at gits-sec.treas.gov. Also

available at that site is information

describing the Steering Committee

and each of the PKI pilots that are

implementing the PKI technologies

to solve a variety of business needs.

The Steering Committee has formed

strong partnerships with numerous

organizations involved in the PKI

activities. Through NIST’s CRADA

33

3. Minimum Interoperability Specification for PKI Components (MISPC), Version 1,

(http://csrc.nist.gov/pki/) Output of NIST’s Cooperative Research and Development

Agreements for Public Key Infrastructure, June 5, 1997.

The Federal PKI Steeri

Committee and its Work

Groups are reaching out 

private companies, st

governments, and other p

ties in developing an int

operable Federal P
pyg

along with the European and Pacific Rim governments, are also

working with the Steering Committee to ensure that the PKI is

interoperable worldwide.

Thirteen PKI pilots, incorporating encryption key recovery functionality, were successfully demonstrated at the Key Recovery

Demonstration Project Technology Conference held in November,

1997. Through the development of these pilots,optional key recovery services can now be included in the PKI.

6.2 Steering Committee’s Working Groups

6.2.1 TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP (TWG)

•The TWG has produced a Certificate Profile for Federal Certificates that recommends the standardized certificate extensions

that should be used in Federal certificates. This profile is closely coordinated with Internet, Multi-Level Information Systems

Security Initiative (MISSI), the MISPC, and proposed banking

profiles.

•The TWG has developed rules for encoding digital signature

algorithm (DSA) keys and for using parameters and “inheriting”

them in certificates and certification paths, that have been

adopted in various standards documents.

•The TWG initiated early work in Technical Security Policies, that

was a precursor to the now widely accepted PKIX 4 proposed

standard outline of topics for Certificate Policies and Certification

Practice Statements. While the overall focus of policy discussion

has shifted to the Legal/Policy Working Group, the TWG continues to examine the technical component of

certificate policies.

•The TWG expects several digital signature

algorithms to be used in the government

and elsewhere. The TWG has developed

an “end-systems” approach to interoperability in a multi-algorithm environment.

34

The Technical Working Group focuses on

technology, hardware,

and software issues.
architectures, resulting in three fairly distinct PKI architectures now in use (hierarchical,network and “browser-style”).

The TWG plans to address this in the CONOPS and provide

recommendations for maximizing interoperability.

- Another issue that the TWG plans to more fully develop in

the CONOPS is certificate status validation and certificate

revocation. This is a rapidly evolving area, and new standards for on-line certificate status validation are emerging.

The TWG plans to extend the CONOPS to accommodate online certificate status validation.

6.2.2 BUSINESS WORKING GROUP (BWG) 

•The BWG has expanded the Department of Transportation’s

Electronic Grants pilot to include requirements from other Federal agencies,state governments, and partners in academia.

•The BWG has hosted monthly meetings since October, 1996 to

foster the exchange of information among Federal agencies

about security technology and the security and information

technology services provided by Federal agencies.

•The BWG has hosted a Security Requirements Workshop for the

Department of Transportation Electronic

Grants pilot, using this cross-agency

pilot as a model for applications of

Internet and security technology,

which can address the needs of multiple agencies and simplify customer

interactions with the Federal government.

•The BWG has hosted educational presentations by contractors

on elliptic curve cryptography and cost models for the PKI.

35

The Business Wo

ing Group focuses 

agency applicatio
and the Request for Comment published by

the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

•The LPWG has had extensive discussions

of risk management issues facing CAs

which led to the formulation of a new

business model for issuing certificates

that was adopted by the General Services Administration (GSA) for use in

their ACES initiative.

•The LPWG is currently overseeing the production of a model

Federal Certificate Policy Statement.

36

The Legal and

Policy Working

Group focuses on

legal and policy

matters.
Committee)

OMB Bruce McConnell mcconnell_b@a1.eop.gov

OMB Peter Weiss Peter_N._Weiss@omb.eop.gov

NPR Andy Boots andy.boots@npr.gov

Army Gary Robison robisga@hqda.army.mil

BLS Elaine Chen-Nash chen-nash_e@bls.gov

BLS Arnold Bresnick bresnick_a@bls.gov

DEA Felix DeMicco (headquarters)

DOD Karen Gorsuch karen.gorsuch@osd.pentagon.mil

DOD Paul Grant paul.grant@gsa.gov 

DoED John Tressler john_tressler@ed.gov

DOE Tom Rowlett thomas.rowlett@hq.doe.gov

DOE Sharon Shank sharon.shank@hq.doe.gov 

DOI John Haines jhaines@ios.doi.gov

DOJ Jerry Ormaner ormanerj@justice.usdoj.gov

DOJ Susan Koeppen skoeppen@leo.gov

DOJ John Lynch Jr. jlynchjr@leo.gov

DOT/FRA Brad Smith bradley.smith@fra.dot.gov

DOT Ann Fisher ann.fisher@ost.dot.gov

EPA William Gill gill.william@epamail.epa.gov 

EPA Kimberly Nelson nelson.kimberly@epmail.epa.gov

FDIC Garret Mussmann Gmussmann@fdic.gov

GSA Judith Spencer judith.spencer@gsa.gov

GSA Allen Church, PhD allen.church@gsa.gov

IRS Stephen H Holden, PhDStephen.H.Holden@ccmail.irs.gov

NIH/DHHS Peter Alterman, PhD peter_alterman@nih.gov

NARA William Lefurgy william.lefurgy@arch2.nara.gov

37
NIST Miles Smid miles.smid@nist.gov

NIST Bill Burr william.burr@nist.gov

NIST Donna Dodson donna.dodson@nist.gov

NIST/FNC Dennis Steinauer dds@nist.gov

NRC Louis H Grosman lhg@nrc.gov

NSA Patty Moreno plmoren@missi.ncsc.mil

NSA Suzanne Brandon scbrand@missi.ncsc.mil 

NSF Gerald B Stuck gstuck@nsf.gov

NTIS Keren Cummins kcummins@fedworld.gov

NTIS Bill Donovan bdonovan@apollo.fedworld.gov

NTIS Mike Williams mwilliams@fedworld.gov

PTO Arthur Purcell purcell@uspto.gov

SBA Donna Clark donna.clark@sba.gov

SBA Howard Bolden howard.bolden@sba.gov

SSA Sara Hamer sara.hamer@ssa.gov

SSA John Sabo john.t.sabo@ssa.gov

SSA Bob Daniels bob.daniels@ssa.gov

Treasury Gary Garner gary.garner@fms.sprint.com

Treasury/FMS Calvin Kidd calvin.kidd@fms.sprint.com

Treasury/FMS John Moore john.moore@fms.sprint.com

USDA Kelvin O Fairfax kelvin_fairfax@fcs.usda.gov

USDA (NFC) Kathy Sharp kathy.sharp@usda.gov

VA Dan Maloney maloney.dan@forum.va.gov

VA Cathie Ward cathie.ward@mail.va.gov

38
y

ARC Ames Research Center

ARL Army Research Lab

ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency

ATM Automated Teller Machine

AWR Annual Wage Reporting

BAA Broad Agency Announcement

BWG Business Working Group

CA Certification Authority

CAW Certification Authority Workstation

CITAC Computer Investigations and Infrastructure Threat

Assessment Center (now called the National Infrastructure Protection Center)

CKL Compromised Key List

CONOPS Concept of Operations

COTS Commercial Off-the-Shelf

CP Certificate Policy

CPS Certification Practice Statement

CRADA Cooperative Research And Development Agreement

CRL Certificate Revocation List

DES Data Encryption Standard

DISA Defense Information Systems Agency

DII Defense Information Infrastructure

DOD Department of Defense

DOE Department of Energy

DoEd Department of Education

DOJ Department of Justice

39
EDI Electronic Data Interchange

EFT Electronic Funds Transfer

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

EPAFS Electronic Patent Application Filing System

ERA Electronic Research Administration

FAA Federal Aviation Administration

FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation

FCS Food and Consumer Services

FHA Federal Highway Administration

FIPS Federal Information Processing Standard

FNCAC Federal Networking Council Advisory Committee

FTA Federal Transit Authority

GITS Government Information Technology Services

Board

GSA General Services Administration

IETF Internet Engineering Task Force

IRS Internal Revenue Service

ISOC Internet Society

KMI Key Management Infrastructure

KRDP Key Recovery Demonstration Project

LAN Local Area Network

LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

LPWG Legal and Policy Working Group

MISPC Minimum Interoperability Specification for PKI

Components

MISSI Multi-Level Information Systems Security Initiative

NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement

40
NIH National Institutes of Health

NII National Information Infrastructure

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NPR National Performance Review; now National Partnership for Reinventing Government

NRC Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or National

Research Council

NSA National Security Agency

NSF National Science Foundation

NTIS National Technical Information Service

PMA Policy Management Authority

PEBES Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement

PIN Personal Identification Number

PKI Public Key Infrastructure

POC Proof-of-Concept

SBA Small Business Administration

SBU Sensitive but unclassified

SDSI Simple Distributed Security Infrastructure

SPKI Simple Public Key Infrastructure

SPS Standard Procurement System

SSA Social Security Administration

SSL Secure Socket Layer protocol

TSP Trade Software Package

TWG Technical Working Group

UN/EDIFACT United Nations/EDI for Financial,Accounting,

Commerce, and Transport

USDA United States Department of Agriculture

41
42
nating and managing public key certificates to support networked applications in the areas of identification, authentication, non-repudiation, and confidentiality;

•Cross-certifying certificates within the infrastructure and with

other infrastructures;

•Maintaining repositories that make certificates and information

about the status of certificates available;

•Providing standards for key exchange (algorithms, protocols,

and formats);

•Providing for key recovery (for encryption keys only);

•Ensuring the current validity status of keys (e.g., generating and

distributing Compromised Key Lists (CKL) and Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL), and providing a process and mechanism for

managing those lists);

•Creating and supporting a secure delivery service for keys;

•Accounting and auditing security and business-relevant events;

•Performing overall day-to-day operation, administration, management, and logistics support for the FPKI.

The Federal Policy Management Authority will supply overall security policy and guidance concerning PKI matters.

43
ery for encryption keys. For that purpose, the National Institute of

Standards and Technology (NIST) provided technical support,

which included issuing a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) soliciting information from vendors about the availability of products,

components, and services that could be used for key recovery.

NIST then assisted the pilot agencies in the development of their

implementation plans and key recovery procedures, and acted as

the technical lead for the testing of the pilot key recovery systems.

NIST coordinated the development of comprehensive test suites for

the pilot systems and assisted in evaluating and reporting the test

results. NIST also procured a CA and is performing experiments to

determine the extent to which a root CA service can be provided

to the other pilots.

Each of the pilot projects was important and significant in its own

way,so the order in which they are listed below (alphabetically by

cabinet agency,then by other agency or organization) does not connote significance.

1. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE / FOOD AND CONSUMER SERVICES

Electronic Benefits Transfer. In an initiative to employ security technologies in the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), the

United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Consumer

Services (FCS) is piloting a security system. After a successful

demonstration, FCS has made provisions to pilot the demonstrated technologies in a live EBT environment. This will be

accomplished by selecting states in which the security technology will be integrated into operational EBT systems.

2. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE/NATIONAL FINANCE CENTER

Trusted Certification Authority at the National Finance

Center. This project focuses on the requirements and functions

necessary to allow the National Finance Center (NFC) to support digital signature requirements from client agencies and to

have the NFC’s CA participate in interoperability testing with

NIST as a trusted CA site using COTS software. Selected application documents, that are electronically submitted and require

45
g gg

Hardware, software, and cryptographic modules upgrades and

enhancements will be implemented to ensure that NFC’s goal of

offering a CA that complies with FIPS 140-1 Security Level III

requirements is realized.

3. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE/NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF

STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY

Purchase Order Request System. The Information Technology Laboratory at the NIST has been focusing on the design,implementation and use of advanced systems for cryptographic based

computer security and office automation systems. The Purchase

Order Request System combines both technologies into a system

which will provide NIST with basic infrastructure components

necessary for migration into a paperless process. The system

allows users to generate and digitally sign purchase order

requests, which are then routed to an approving authority. The

approving authority reviews the request, verifies the user’s signature and, if in agreement with the request,signs it and sends the

electronic form to the administrative officer for processing. The

system has been developed in a modular fashion so that both the

digital signature module and the certificate management module

can be used to support other applications using digital signature

technology.

4. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE/NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF

STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY

Root Certification Authority Reference Implementation.

The purpose of this project is to develop an initial implementation of a top level or root CA for the PKI and to conduct experiments with Federal agencies who are actively engaged in the

development and use of digital signature technology. The CA will

issue certificates to various pilot CA applications now being

developed by Federal agencies. This test will foster a flexible hierarchy, which could support agency-level digital signature based

applications. The initial root CA will also be used to cross-certify

with CAs operated or provided by commercial vendors.

46
y ppg 

Grants System and the NIH Electronic Grants Pilot, both detailed

below, and is actively exploring partnerships with other agencies

that need digital signature and encryption capabilities incorporated into current or planned web-based applications.

6. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE / PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

International Patent Document Exchange Project. The

USPTO International Patent Document Exchange Project will

demonstrate the exchange of patent documents in secure electronic form between the Trilateral Offices (USPTO, European

Patent Office, and Japanese Patent Office) and the International

Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) to

reduce processing costs and the burden on applicants. The pilot

implements encrypted e-mail with a key recovery capability.

7. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE /PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

Electronic Patent Application Filing System (EPAFS). The

EPAFS was started as a project designed to help determine the

feasibility of using the Internet and the WWW as a platform for

electronic filing of patent applications. The development of

EPAFS was initially focused on the filing of applications under the

Patent Cooperation Treaty, a format that has international applicability. Currently, extensions and enhancements are being made

to EPAFS for demonstration in conjunction with the participation

of the USPTO in the KRDP under sponsorship of the GITS Board.

Recent developments in the areas of high-grade encryption and

digital signature technology coupled with emerging vendor

products and software components offer promising solutions to

many of the problems associated with moving to an electronic

patent filing and processing environment. For example, encryption key recovery interchange standards and software modules

will now support and enhance the recovery capabilities of

archival data and other information assets. General business

practices will be enhanced with this new key recovery capability. The USPTO will now be able to concentrate efforts on delivering better services to the Intellectual Property (IP) practition

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provide the means for identifying and authorizing travel needs,

estimating the cost of each trip, arranging for transportation and

ticketing, ascertaining whether housing and dining facilities are

available during business travel, paying transportation bills, performing checkbook functions, reimbursing travelers, and making

financial settlement for each trip. To support digital signature,the

Department of Defense (DOD) Public Key Infrastructure will provide the means for DTS users to acquire medium assurance digital signature certificates and provide access to those certificates.

9. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE /DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Standard Procurement System. The Standard Procurement

System (SPS) will provide a single DOD procurement system

with electronic commerce capability. The SPS is a COTS application based upon a relational database application that has been

evaluated by the National Computer Security Center (NCSC). The

SPS will process only sensitive but unclassified (SBU) information, financial data, trade secrets, technical methods, and other

proprietary information as well as source selection data. The

business goals of the SPS include meeting procurement functional requirements,accepting and outputting standard DOD data elements, and reducing operating expenses of the DOD procurement infrastructure.

10. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE /NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY

Multi-level Information Systems Security Initiative. The

Multi-level Information Systems Security Initiative (MISSI) is a

network of security initiatives employing a framework for the

development and evolution of network system security solutions. These solutions draw on interoperable, complementary

COTS and government-sponsored security products and standards to provide flexible, modular security for networked information systems across the Defense Information Infrastructure

(DII) and the National Information Infrastructure (NII).

The underlying Network Security Framework, developed in 

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characteristics and the state of the commercial technology in

order to make recommendations regarding the use of these

industry offerings. To support near-term DOD customers and

gain technology expertise, the PKI functions have been implemented through a government-sponsored CA Workstation (CAW)

that manages keys, privileges, and certificates. The current operational MISSI CAW hierarchy focuses on supporting FORTEZZA

Crypto Cards.

In the near term, the Defense Information Systems Agency

(DISA) and NSA as part of MISSI are utilizing the CAW and

FORTEZZA Crypto cards to field a high assurance PKI for the

Defense Messaging System (DMS) for organizational messaging

traffic. This implementation supports the required DMS user

security services through the use of the FORTEZZA Crypto

card and an X.500 directory.

A long-term goal of MISSI is to support customer PKI needs,

through a combination of (1) acting as an unbiased authority validating the security goodness of the commercial PKI

products/services, and (2) driving the development of robust

PKI solutions by specifying requirements and transferring technology expertise to industry.

11. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Electronic Research Administration Demonstration. This

project will test emerging security technologies for EDI that are

based on the Internet standards for secure e-mail. Six Federal

agencies and eight academic research organizations currently

involved in Electronic Research Administration (ERA) will participate in this project. This project will test the interoperability

of multiple vendors’ products across an open systems environment. The initial implementation will focus on processing

encrypted electronic grant applications and providing key recovery services.

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verifies the form.

13. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY/ LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL

LABORATORY

Public Key Infrastructure. The LLNL is in the process of

building the PKI to support both its programmatic and business

operations. Part of these operations include network interactions with many other DOE laboratories, facilities, and vendors.

In order to utilize the network, LLNL’s infrastructure must provide strong authentication, nonrepudiation, message integrity,

and privacy for the information being exchanged. An emergency

access capability is viewed as a critical part of this infrastructure

if the full potential of public key encryption technology for privacy is to be realized. LLNL will exercise the key recovery capabilities of a commercial software product to ascertain its ability

to meet requirements.

14. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Secure Electronic Messaging System. The U.S. Department

of Treasury’s Office of Corporate Systems Management (OCSM)

has implemented a pilot project aimed at exploring the use of

PKI tools to facilitate the flow of procurement information.

Specifically, the project is designed to reduce the time and

resources needed to request, review, and approve task orders

issued under existing contracts. In the case of this pilot, OCSM

has instituted a system that enables Treasury employees to interact securely with key employees of a Treasury contractor over

the Internet. Encryption, digital signatures, and key recovery

functionality are being used to secure all transactions.

15. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY/U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE

North American Trade Automation Prototype. Article 512

of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) states

that,to the extent possible,the three Parties (United States,Canada, and Mexico) will agree, for the purpose of facilitating trade,

to harmonize documentation, standardize data elements, and

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processes could function in a cost effective,secure manner. Designated as the North American Trade Automation Prototype

(NATAP), the initiative includes live operations at U.S., Mexican,

and Canadian frontiers. While the prototype is low volume relative to the daily cross-border activities, it has been implemented

by over 400 trade partners in North America, and therefore represents a unique exploration of state of the art technology by

government and commercial organizations.

Through NATAP,government and commercial organizations have

the opportunity to exercise a business-driven application of

electronic commerce over the Internet and to validate the use of

standardized international trade data elements. Further,since the

application has been implemented using the Internet,it has been

designed with a high level of security features to ensure confidentiality and authenticity of business sensitive information contained in routine customs declarations, while preserving the

availability of that information through key recovery.

16. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION / FEDERAL

RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION

U. S. Electronic Grants. Led by the U.S. Department of Transportation, thirteen Federal agencies (Departments of Education,

Energy, Interior, Labor, Environmental Protection Agency, General Services Administration, Office of Naval Research, Small Business Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, Federal

Transit Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal

Highway Administration, and U.S. Coast Guard) have joined

together to develop a comprehensive “Electronic Grants System”

(EGS). This system will streamline the Federal grant process,

improve efficiency and cut costs for grant customers and federal agencies. EGS uses Java and Information Broker technologies

to enable any grant customer to electronically exchange grant

data with any Federal agency, or multiple agencies, using a single

WWW user interface. These technologies also provide a truly

interactive user interface by transmitting grant data to and from

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tured in Access America, the Vice-President’s report.

With funding from the GITS Board’s Key Recovery Demonstration Project,secure features including digital signatures, encryption and key recovery, have been added to the EGS pilot. This

secure pilot is currently being tested with state government and

university partners. Following completion of this testing, full

EGS development will begin.

17. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI)

Internet Communications Security. This project is to develop a method for the Computer Investigations and Infrastructure

Threat Assessment Center (CITAC) to communicate with representatives of private industry, the academic community, and other law enforcement agencies in a secure manner, while at the

same time supporting key recovery. The pilot will test secure Email over the Internet and will involve security services such as

digital signature and encryption.

18. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Secure E-mail. This project is to secure the contents of E-mail

messages sent within the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

and between the FBI and other Department of Justice (DOJ)

components. This project focuses on a small number of e-mail

users to demonstrate the use of encryption for confidentiality

and the feasibility of providing key recovery for the e-mail messages.

19. FEDERAL NETWORKING COUNCIL /NATIONAL

SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Collaborations in Internet Security. This project is aimed at

promoting multi-agency collaborations in the security arena.

Eight agencies are participating directly (i.e., DOE, DOD/Army

Research Lab (ARL),Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA),

National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Communications

System (NCS), NIST, National Science Foundation (NSF), and

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behind the Security Testbeds include employment of an open

process (with the activities and results open to participation and

comment by both public and private sector participants); a focus

on multi-vendor technologies; an emphasis on testing and experimentally deploying security technologies emerging from

research and private sectors as well as security technologies currently in use in the commercial environment; and an underlying

objective to ensure interoperability among the broad Internet

community (i.e., Federal, private, and academic).

This effort will also include development of a laboratory accreditation program for testing and certifying Internet security software and systems. This process will be modeled on NIST’s

National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program, which

tests and accredits systems and products for Federal and private

sector users. The FNC is tasked with bridging the gap between

the advanced networking technologies being developed by

research FNC agencies and the ultimate acquisition of mature

versions of these technologies from the commercial sector.

20. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

Paperless Federal Transactions for the Public. The Paperless Federal Transactions for the Public pilot was an early attempt

to develop a user friendly, interoperable solution utilizing Federal and industry standards, where available, to provide a public

key architecture that would satisfy the concerns of the regulatory agencies for performing electronic commerce and funds transfer over the worldwide web. By developing partnerships with

industry and concentrating on COTS products, a proof-of-concept pilot was designed and implemented using public key technology to enable digital signature and encryption. The concept

called for a “plug-and-play” architecture requiring industry partners to adhere to a set of Federal standards, including the use of

the DES encryption algorithm, and DSS for digital signatures. Six

agencies agreed to participate and develop applications for use

with the Paperless pilot. Each was provided a web server,server

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were then issued hardware tokens containing digital signature

key pairs which were used to sign their electronic submissions.

For this procurement, no paper submissions were required saving approximately $1.5 million in government resources which

would otherwise have been expended in handling paper submissions.

21. NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Public Key Infrastructure. The PKI pilot project will investigate (1) the use of standard X.509 certificates for public key

infrastructure, (2) the deployment issues related to the PKI, and

(3) other key infrastructure, such as Simple Public Key Infrastructure/Simple Distributed Security Infrastructure

(SPKI/SDSI).

The study of the PKI includes the COTS implementation of the

PKI technology. The deployment issues related to the PKI (i.e.,

scalability, reliability, performance, maintainability, and cost) will

be investigated. Additionally, the Ames Research Center (ARC)

will study the latest trend in the area of the PKI, such as

SPKI/SDSI. The study of SPKI/SDSI covers the research cooperation between ARC and MIT. SPKI/SDSI emphasizes unique

approaches to naming and delegation of authority. It will be useful for authorization and access-control applications. A

SPKI/SDSI version 2.0 prototype is being implemented at MIT.

22. NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

Electronic Research Administration/Public-Key Infrastructure. All secure systems require that trust be established

between system users. This concept is embodied in the Electronic Research Administration (ERA)/Public Key Infrastructure

(PKI) pilot deployed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The NIH pilot enables grantee organizations to exchange data

with NIH in a trusted manner.

Many grantee organizations participating in the pilot with NIH

have implemented grant administration systems. These systems

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system. For PKI services NIH has partnered with the National

Technical Information Service (NTIS). NTIS received funding

from the Government Information Technology Services Board

(GITSB) Key Recovery Demonstration Project to prototype Certification Authority (CA) and Key Recovery Agent (KRA) functions for the NIH pilot.

As part of its PKI service, NTIS has supplied a workgroup security tool to NIH pilot participants (i.e., grantee organizations).

Using this GUI-based tool, grantees can digitally sign files (e.g.,

EDI transactions containing grant applications). These files can

then be uploaded to NIH via a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) channel. Additionally, grantees can use the tool to encrypt data on

their local systems.

The NIH pilot is part of an overall NIH effort to work with other

Federal agencies and the research community to develop an electronic research administration system that promotes standardization of data and flexibility in non-proprietary technological solutions.

23. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Electronic Lending Program. The SBA Electronic Lending

Program is an initiative to re-engineer business loan guarantee

processes. The Key Recovery Project will feature acceptance of

electronic applications for SBA guarantees on FA$TRAK loans

from a small group of bank lenders.

24. SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

Annual Wage Reporting (AWR) Pilot. SSA is responsible for

processing the data from approximately 220,000,000 W-2 and W3 forms each year. Approximately 10,000,000 of these forms are

submitted by employers who have 15 or fewer employees. The

vast majority of these submissions are on paper and require significant manual processing by SSA before the data is usable by

SSA or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In an effort to streamline this process, SSA entered into a proof-of-concept (POC)

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pilot was an important opportunity to learn more about our customers, third parties providing secure authentication and certification services, the PKI, key recovery services, systems issues

related to the PKI and the Internet, and how such services

should be marketed.

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