Smart Police ID for IAM

For UK police forces looking to comply with the Identity Access Management (IAM) formerly Unified Police Security Architecture (UPSA) and allow secure access to national police data services across the UK, ActivIdentity provides a Smart Police ID solution that permits police authorities to deploy a single and secure intelligent identification card for police personnel. The ActivIdentity Smart Police ID card functions as a photo ID and a proximity badge for facility access, as well as an IT security device for digital identification, authorisation and authentication at local and national levels, in compliance with IAM recommendations.

What is IAM?

Business change programme: The IMPACT programme (Intelligence Management, Prioritisation, Analysis, Co-ordination and Tasking) is a technology-enabled business change programme that is improving the ability of the UK Police Service to manage and share information to prevent and detect crime and make our communities safer.

Single identity access: In accordance with IMPACT, the Identity Access Management (IAM) formerly UPSA initiative will make the work of the police service much easier by allowing users to access national police data services with a single digital identity.

Smart card authentication: IAM delivers a security framework that provides identification, authentication and authorisation services for access to national police data services, applications and data. With IAM, Police officers and support staff are required to authenticate using a smart card containing a trusted certificate issued by their respective force.

More than a multi-function smart card

The ActivIdentity Smart Police ID solution is much more than a multi-function smart card: it is a framework that provides police force staff with fast, convenient and secure access to operational information across multiple systems, regions and services. Police forces are assured that people making requests for information are who they say they are, and that they have a legitimate business need to access the information held by other forces.

Main Features

Strong Authentication to local and national level police service IT systems for staff in the office or in the field, with 'chip and PIN' security for remote access, workstation and network access, and controlled application access.
Secure communications and transactions via secure e-mail and data exchange between police forces, secure documents and files, signed transactions, encrypted data storage, and secure auditing.
Secure access to facilities through off-the-shelf integration with leading Facility Access Control System vendors.

Business benefits

Fast access to information: In a typical UK police IT system, police officers and support staff are required to login with user names and static passwords multiple times per day to connect to multiple systems and data sources in order to fulfill their operational duties. Smart card authentication is fast and easy with a 'chip and PIN' experience.

Accountability: When a security incident occurs, police authorities must be able to identify offending individuals. Strong proof of identity and tight integration between security audits provide legally enforceable proof of any access to facilities, IT systems and information.

Risk mitigation: A security or privacy breach can result in grave consequences for UK police services given the sensitive and confidential nature of the data their systems and applications handle, as found by the Bichard report. The ActivIdentity Smart Police ID solution reduces the risk of breaches with strong proof of identity, secure access to information as well as integrity and confidentiality of data in transit.

Reduced Help-Desk costs: The single largest reason for IT Help-Desk calls is password resets. By replacing passwords with a smart card for a 'chip and PIN' experience, help-desk costs are dramatically reduced.

Process efficiency: Many police forces already have processes and systems for issuance of warrant cards for facility access. With the ActivIdentity Smart Police ID solution, smart cards enabled for both IT access and facility access can be issued as a single function, leveraging existing processes and systems.

Personnel education: Frustrated users tend to work around security policies to make logging into computers easier. With the ActivIdentity Smart Police ID solution, convenience and security are tied together. The card is required to access facilities, so employees must take it with them when leaving their office, and the card removal automatically locks the computer screen and its applications.

Technical benefits

Field-proven: ActivIdentity Smart Police ID solutions are used by many police authorities around the world including the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). ActivIdentity solutions are FIPS 201 certified and are deployed by many government agencies including the US Department of Defense with 10 million smart cards issued.

Security across IT infrastructures: Enable multi-factor security with smart cards across the IT infrastructure, including secure remote access (VPN, Dial-up, Web); secure workstation and network access (LAN, WLAN); single sign on; signed and encrypted e-mail, documents or files; and secure transactions.

Ease of deployment: Smart Police ID generally deploys without the need for custom integration work because of its pre-integration with leading smart card vendors, certificate authorities (CA), directories, Identity Management Systems (IDMS), and Physical Access Control Systems (PACS).

Extensible and Open: Public APIs and SDKs allow easy integration with more environments such as additional IDMS, CA and PACS vendors that may not be pre-integrated. Open standards-based architecture allows integration with virtually any third party system or application.

Future proof: ActivID® Card Management System (CMS) allows organizations to quickly deploy smart cards to address immediate needs, and to update cards post-issuance securely in the field. ActivClient® middleware shields organizations from the headaches of evolving interoperability standards by providing transparent support for multiple generations of specifications including US DoD CAC, GSC-IS 2.1 and PIV, and continues to evolve to support new standards.

A name you can trust: With over a decade of domain expertise, a broad patent portfolio and extensive investment in ongoing research and development, ActivIdentity develops all its software products and ensures that its solutions continue to provide the industry-leading security, usability, and interoperability that police authorities require.

Standards support

GlobalPlatform / OpenPlatform
Java Card™
FIPS 201 / PIV certified cards and applications
FIPS 140-2 certified cards and applications
FIPS 140-2 certified Hardware Security Modules
LDAP 3.0 directory services
SSL 3.0 communications
Section 508 accessibility requirements
A variety of Public Key Infrastructure standards including PKCS#7, PKCS#10, PKCS#11, X509, CRMF / CMMF / CRM
A variety of smart card interoperability specifications including U.S. DoD Common Access Card (CAC), Government Smart Card Interoperability Standard (GSC-IS), and more.