FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 2008
Contact: OMB Communications, 202-395-7254
OMB Reports Significant HSPD-12 Implementation
Progress but Areas for Improvement Identified
Washington, DC — Today, OMB released its fourth agency Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-12 implementation progress report.
With the October 27th deadline, agencies provided an update to the September website posting of HSPD-12 status on the number of credentials issued. Since September 1, agencies have issued over 300,000 credentials. As of October 27, 2008, half of the scorecard agencies met the credentialing targets in their agreed-upon implementation plans. These agencies include: Education, EPA, DOD (includes USACE), HUD, Labor, NASA, NSF, OMB, State, SSA, and Treasury.
“All of these agencies should be commended for achieving the milestones in their HSPD-12 plans”, stated Karen Evans. “OMB congratulates NASA and Treasury in particular for achieving their targets and the HSPD-12 objectives given the challenges they experienced during their implementation. For those agencies that met their goals, we areencouraging them to document and share their best practices through the CIO Council Best Practices Committee in order for theother agencies to benefit while updating their existing implementation plans.”
In addition to the agencies listed above, the following scorecard agencies are issuing HSPD-12 credentials to all new employees and contractors as part of the boarding process: GSA, SBA, and USAID.
As of this date, 29% (1,593,191) of federal employees and contractors have received the new identity credentials.
Some important accomplishments on the HSPD-12 initiative over the past four years include:
- Issuance of the NIST standard (FIPS 201) in February 2005, followed by the issuance of several technical guidelines.
- Establishment of a conformance and interoperability program in May 2006, with over 370 products and 34 systems integrators on the GSA approved services and products list.
- Formation of the GSA HSPD-12 Shared Services offering in August 2006 to service approximately 70 customer agencies.
- Establishment of 19 credential issuance infrastructures to provide credentialing services to the federal workforce.
- A number of agencies have also begun to use the electronic capabilities of the credentials for physical and/or logical access.
"In implementing the Presidential Directive, agencies have reached an important milestone towards improving their security postures, but there is still more work to do," said Clay Johnson, OMB Deputy Director for Management. "Agency senior leadership must follow through on their commitments and targets to the objectives of HSPD-12."
For agencies not achieving the target in their agreed-upon plans, OMB is working with these agencies by providing recommended corrective actions and has requested that they submit updated plans by November 17 with milestones for how they intend to meet the requirements of the Presidential Directive as soon as possible.
The focus over the coming year, will be on completing the background investigations and issuance of credentials as part of the on boarding process and complete all other issuance, as well as implementing plans for leveraging the capabilities of the credentials.
To assist agencies with their planning, in May 2008, OMB issued guidance asking agencies to finalize plans for how they intend to leverage the credentials to the maximum extent. This guidance includes questions for what agencies should consider in developing their plans.
In addition to improving security, HSPD-12 has been the impetus to streamline business processes. For example, agencies are using the HSPD-12 enrollment stations to capture and transmit electronic fingerprint files used for the screening and adjudication of background investigations. This will speed the screening and adjudication time required for the hiring process, and improve the protection of sensitive personal information.
"By leveraging the capabilities of HSPD-12 identity credentials, agencies can achieve greatly enhanced physical and cybersecurity while obtaining the benefits of government-wide interoperability," stated Karen Evans.
To view the HSPD-12 reports, please access: /omb/egov/b-1-information.html#hspd12.
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