Energy will use PKI to secure Rocky Flats -- GCN

Energy will use PKI to secure Rocky Flats

Nov 17, 2000

By Tony Lee Orr

GCN Staff

NOV. 17—The Energy Department will use smart-card technology and a public-key infrastructure to secure the soon-to-be-shuttered Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site near Denver.

Initially, card readers and interface software will be installed and smart cards distributed to roughly 300 employees working to clean up and shut down the facility, which is being closed after nearly 40 years of nuclear weapons production, officials said. The target date for completion is 2006.

DataKey Inc. of Minneapolis will supply the smart-card technology. Users will access secure areas at Rocky Flats using the card along with a password, company officials said.

'The Rocky Flats PKI initiative is designed to meet 'medium assurance standards,' which requires the use of a cryptographic smart card that securely stores and processes a user's private keys,' said John Chamberlin, senior security engineer at DynCorp of Reston, Va., the subcontractor deploying the technology at the site.

After the initial deployment, officials will expand smart-card use to thousands of employees across the Rocky Flats complex, officials said.

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