Rich also noted that efforts are underway to attempt to secure additional funding for public key technology projects as part of the Critical Infrastructure Protection effort headed by the National Security Council. More information on this will be made available as events unfold. The first contract was awarded to a consortium led by Digital Signature Trust. The award will be put on-line within the next several weeks. Future awards are expected if the other bidders meet the terms of the RFP and the initial award.
Agencies are responsible for ACES enabling their software applications.
GSA will assist agencies making their software applications ACES aware through interagency agreements between the agencies and GSA to use the ACES contractors for that purpose. The CAM will be supplied free of charge to agencies who use ACES certificates. At the end of the meeting, MitreTek gave a detailed demonstration of the CAM, which is operating in beta form on their web site. The demonstration showed flawless CAM operation in both manual and automatic modes. Agency responses will be required by December 17.