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The Federal Bridge Certification Authority – Description and Current Status

The Federal Bridge Certification Authority – Description and Current Status. Peter Alterman, Ph.D. Senior Advisor to the Chair, Federal PKI Steering Committee and Acting Director, Federal Bridge Certification Authority. The FBCA Architecture. CA, Directory, End users. Bridge CA

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The Federal Bridge Certification Authority – Description and Current Status

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  1. The Federal Bridge Certification Authority – Description and Current Status Peter Alterman, Ph.D. Senior Advisor to the Chair, Federal PKI Steering Committee and Acting Director, Federal Bridge Certification Authority

  2. The FBCA Architecture CA, Directory, End users Bridge CA And Directory Bridge CA And Directory Trustpaths Trustpaths CA,Directory, End users Trustpaths CA, Directory, End users

  3. FBCA Overview • Designed for the purpose of creating trust paths between among PKI domains • Issues cross-certificates to Member CAs only • Employs a distributed, NOT a hierarchical, model • Commercial products participate within the membrane of the Bridge OR interoperate with products within the membrane • Develops cross certificates within the membrane to bridge the gap among dissimilar products

  4. FBCA Goals • Leverage emerging Federal Agency PKIs to create a unified Federal PKI • Limit workload on Agency CA staff • Support Agency use of: • Any FIPS-approved cryptographic algorithm • A broad range of commercial CA products • Propagate policy information to certificate users in different Agencies

  5. FBCA Operation • Issues Cross-Certificates to Participating CAs only • FPKI Steering Committee oversees FBCA development and operations • Documentation • Enhancements • Client-side software • Operates in accordance with Policy Authority and FPKISC direction

  6. FBCA Management Hierarchy • Steering Committee oversees FBCA development and operations • Direct Operational Authority • Bridge Documentation • Enhancements • Policy Authority determines participants and levels of cross-certification • Administers Certificate Policy • Approves requests to cross-certify • Enforces compliance by member organizations • GSA named Operational Authority • Operates in accordance with Policy Authority and Steering Committee direction

  7. Current Status - August 10, 2001 • Policy Authority approved final documentation on June 18, 2001 • Certificate Policy • Certification Practices Statement • Independent Compliance Analysis • FBCA “open and ready for business” at the GSA/FTS WillowWoods facility operated by Mitretek Systems on June 7, 2001 • Prototyping/Compatibility lab continues operational off-site • Hot backup site nearing completion • C & A Audit under way by KPMG • Three federal agencies and one state government preparing documentation for application for interoperability with Bridge: NASA, NFC, FDIC, Illinois

  8. What Will It Take to Use the FBCA? • Policy mapping of certificate policies • Sharing annual audits • Careful management of cross-certificates to limit transitive trust (exclusion trees) • Directory interoperability and synchronization • Client software for certificate path discovery and processing

  9. Next Steps • Continue to bring federal agencies into interoperability • Bring additional products into Bridge membrane and/or verify interoperability with products in membrane: working with RSA, Cylink, Spyrus and talking with VeriSign and Microsoft • Pursue interoperability with State PKIs • Pursue interoperability with Nation of Canada • Pursue interoperability with non-government sector bridges

  10. References • Federal PKI Steering Committee Website: http://www.cio.gov/fpkisc • FBCA Page: http://www.cio.gov/fpkisc/fbca/index.htm • NIST PKI Website: http://csrc.nist.gov/pki

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