The product is attractive to federal agencies because it provides a high-level of control over authenticating end users' authority and issuing and managing certificates, as well being able to scale to millions of users at a low cost of ownership, said Nick Piazzola, vice president of VeriSign's Federal Markets Division. Although VeriSign declined to name the federal agencies that have begun using its products, FCW has learned that among them are the FBI, the Energy Department, the Patent and Trademark Office, the Social Security Administration, the Agriculture Department, the Air Force, the Navy and the Army. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company launched its Federal Markets Division from Baltimore in January 1997. Core to the product suite is VeriSign's OnSite, which provides all the necessary certificate services, applications support and management tools required to operate a certificate authority. OnSite consists of customized end-user enrollment pages, administrative control and management of World Wide Web pages, and a certificate directory distribution service.
End users can request and receive certificates via a set of Web pages.
Administrators use a second set of Web pages to control user authentication, approve certificate requests and renewals, and revoke certificates as well as perform other management tasks. While the U.S. Postal Service and the General Services Administration have made overtures about launching a PKI to service other agencies, neither has launched an operational PKI, thereby leaving agencies on their own for securing transactions, he said. The FBI is using VeriSign's products in a pilot called Infraguard, which allows private-sector participants to file reports electronically to the FBI about computer security breaches, according to sources familiar with the project. These private-sector participants are issued certificates from VeriSign, and those certificates carry digital signatures to authenticate a user's identity. PTO is using VeriSign technology as part of a pilot to demonstrate the exchange of patent documents in secure electronic form between the International Bureau of World Intellectual Property Office and patent offices in the United States, Europe and Japan.