NASA, Treasury Department Leveraging Shared Security System

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has deployed an Entrust public key infrastructure (PKI) solution to unify its security strategy across all sites and field offices in support of its "One NASA" and HSPD-12 initiatives. This consolidated IT security strategy enables NASA employees to continue to take advantage of existing PKI capabilities while the agency conserves resources by leveraging the Department of Treasury's Shared Service Provider (SSP) PKI service. All 11 NASA offices, research centers, laboratories and launch facilities, including the organization's headquarters in Washington, D.C.. and the Houston-based Johnson Space Center, now use a common infrastructure, improving the security of communication and protecting highly sensitive and valuable data.

"One NASA is a challenging, yet vital, concept that helps NASA optimize taxpayer dollars while improving the security of its sensitive intellectual property and protecting the flow of communication between the 11 physical sites," said Entrust's Bill Conner. "After enjoying a productive 10-year relationship with NASA, Entrust is pleased to support the One NASA initiative and the consolidation effort of the organization's broad security strategy."

In order to maximize its IT security resources, NASA is minimizing overhead by using the Department of Treasury's Shared Service Provider PKI service for digital certificates. The Treasury SSP helped NASA meet the October 2006 HSPD-12 deadline, as well as enabled the agency to further enhance its PKI capabilities.

As part of the overarching strategy, NASA is currently implementing agencywide smart-card logon with Personal Identification Verification (PIV) certificates; secure e-mail via standards-based encryption capabilities; digital signatures for agency forms and documents; and strong authentication solutions for Web servers and domain controllers. NASA also has implemented digital certificates for remote-access users to comply with a June 2006 Office of Management and Budget memorandum (M-06-16), which stated that all government agencies institute two-factor authentication for remote-access users.

The objective of the One NASA initiative is a stronger organization with optimal utilization of the agency's resources and allocated funds, which will see the headquarters and 10 centers working toward a shared vision. NASA's goal is to maintain an integrated and strategic focus in its business management through common systems and appropriate standardization.