A security association worth associating with

When it comes to HSPD-12 and the Personal Identity Verification card, the biggest challenge that too few people talk about just yet is how to use the new ID cards for accessing network resources. As people like to say, the guns-and-badges security folks who control building access are a whole separate crew from the IT security guys who control network access.

Officials at the Defense Department have told GCN in the past that although its Common Access Card, a precursor to the PIV card, can handle logical network access, few organizations within DOD actually use it that way right now. Which makes sense. Integrating physical and logical access may prove to be a bear.

Even industry has started to appreciate the challenge.

Yesterday the Open Security Exchange and its Convergence Council announced plans to publish a "Convergence Roadmap" for combining physical and IT security. The roadmap is due this fall and will include best practices, business cases and other implementation advice.

The OSE board represents a modest collection of vendors, including Computer Associates, CoreStreet (which has a role in DOD's PKI program, among other deployments), GE Infrastructure Security and Fargo Electronics (which makes cards for the CAC program).

But notably, among the OSE's advisors and Convergence Council members is Mike Butler, chief of DOD's smart card programs, now on-loan to GSA to help agencies implement HSPD-12. Which leads us to believe the upcoming Convergence Roadmap will include useful information for government security projects. So stay tuned and monitor developments.

Posted by Brad Grimes

Posted by Brad Grimes, Joab Jackson on Aug 02, 2006 at 2:33 PM