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Lenel's government smartcard solution

Lenel Systems International, a developer of systems for commercial security markets, has announced that its flagship OnGuard Total Security Knowledge Management Solution complies with Homeland Security Presidential Directive Number 12 (HSPD-12), and also meets the intent of the Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201).

HSPD-12 is a policy directive that was issued by US President George W. Bush in August 2004. It establishes a mandatory, Government-wide identification standard for Federal Government employees and contractors. The objectives of that initiative are enhanced security, improved Government efficiency, reduced incidence of identity fraud and protection of personal privacy. HSPD-12 dictates that a programme must be defined by June 2005.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed FIPS 201, titled Personal Identity Verification of Federal Employees and Contractors, to satisfy the requirements of HSPD-12. By creating procedural and technical guidelines for the employee identification card, cardholder verification, data elements on the card, and physical and logical security interfaces, FIPS 201 seeks to improve identification and authentication of Federal employees and contractors for access to Federal facilities and information systems. FIPS 201 includes PIV I (Personal Identification Verification I) - which addresses security, privacy and common ID standards; and PIV II - which addresses compliance methods and migration to the PIV meeting HSPD-12 standards.

The Lenel OnGuard solution meets the current and future needs of Federal Government credential enrolment, verification and issuance, as dictated by HSPD-12 and FIPS 201. Specifically:

Personnel enrolment and verification. FIPS 201 requires a secure process for verifying that an applicant for an identification card is in fact authorised to receive one. Using the OnGuard ID CredentialCenter application, a Federal Government employee or contractor can be enrolled into the system, including capture of photo and biometric data. The person's data is verified against Federal databases for authenticity and background checks.

Card issuance. Once the person has been verified, OnGuard ID CredentialCenter can produce the PIV card and support Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for PIV II compliance. Lenel supports both contact and contactless smartcards.

Physical and logical security integration. A requirement of HSPD-12 and FIPS 201 is integration between physical and logical security domains. Through strong partnerships with logical security providers, Lenel offers seamless integration of both physical and logical security, including the ability to manage and issue a PIV card from within a single application.

"Lenel has a long and successful history of working with the Federal Government, and we have deployed many highly-secure system installations in the physical domain," said Rudy Prokupets, chief technology officer and executive vice president of Research and Development for Lenel. "This new offering expands our existing OnGuard solution to facilitate access to both the logical and the physical security domains, and supports the HSPD-12 mandate and emerging FIPS 201 standard," Prokupets added.

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