U.S. Financial Management Service and Office of Personnel Management Leverage Standards-Based Federated Identity Solution to Facilitate Secure Online Collaboration
Bedford, MA— RSA Security Inc. (Nasdaq: RSAS) today announced that the U.S. Treasury Department Financial Management Service (FMS) and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have selected RSA® Federated Identity Manager solution to help meet requirements related to the federal government’s E-Authentication Initiative. The E-Authentication Initiative supports the President’s E-Government Management Agenda, and aims to provide a standardized process for establishing and using electronic identities, eliminating the need for each federal agency to develop a separate solution for verifying identities and electronic signatures.
RSA Federated Identity Manager solution will enable both agencies to leverage technology based on the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) standard to easily and securely share trusted identities across government departments, agencies and business units. A stand-alone solution, RSA Federated Identity Manager eases online collaboration, reduces administrative costs, increases security and improves the end-user experience. RSA Federated Identity Manager recently achieved SAML 2.0 interoperability certification through the Liberty Alliance.
U.S. Treasury Department Financial Management Service
The U.S. Treasury Department Financial Management Service (FMS) serves as the money manager for the U.S. government, providing centralized payment, collection and reporting services. FMS selected RSA Federated Identity Manager solution to meet its requirements as a Relying Party within the E-Authentication framework. As a Relying Party – an organization which accepts an identity credential provided by a trusted partner or other entity – FMS is using RSA Federated Identity Manager solution to securely exchange trusted identities with other agencies via the General Services Administration’s E-Authentication Portal.
“The Financial Management Service has joined the E-Authentication Federation much earlier in the process than we had anticipated,” said Marty Mills, Acting Assistant Commissioner for Debt Managementr Services at FMS. “The security and flexibility provided by the E-Authentication initiative helped us to design a solution we’re comfortable deploying in this security conscious time.”
U.S. Office of Personnel Management
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is chartered to develop a high-quality and diverse Federal workforce, engaging with the President, Congress, departments and agencies, and other stakeholders to implement human capital policies that assist Federal agencies in meeting their strategic goals. OPM serves as both a Relying Party and an Asserting Party – organizations which generate and provide the trusted identity credential.
At OPM, RSA Federated Identity Manager is being utilized within Employee Express, an electronic system that empowers Federal employees to manage their own discretionary payroll and personnel transactions. Initially piloted in 1995, the system has grown to include more than 60 agencies and more than one million users.* Employee Express is a trusted service provider under the E-Authentication Initiative and will provide assertions to relying OPM sites USAJOBS.gov and USALearning.gov, among others.
“The E-Authentication Initiative is an important example of how federated identity technology may enable organizations to effectively share trusted identities online,” said Toffer Winslow, vice president of product management and product marketing at RSA Security. “By leveraging a standards-based framework and offering proven, interoperable solutions, RSA Security enables U.S. government agencies to securely implement federated relationships, and to quickly integrate this technology within a broader identity and access management infrastructure.”
About RSA Security Inc.
RSA Security Inc. is the expert in protecting online identities and digital assets. The inventor of core security technologies for the Internet, the company leads the way in strong authentication and encryption, bringing trust to millions of user identities and the transactions that they perform. RSA Security’s portfolio of award-winning identity & access management solutions helps businesses to establish who’s who online – and what they can do.
With a strong reputation built on a 20-year history of ingenuity, leadership and proven technologies, we serve approximately 19,000 customers around the globe and interoperate with more than 1,000 technology and integration partners. For more information, please visit www.rsasecurity.com.
* For further information on Employee Express see www.opm.gov/hr/employ/products/express/express2.asp
