HERNDON, Va., Sept. 11, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a contract to provide the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with a public key infrastructure (PKI) to increase the level of security provided to its information systems.
The initial contract value is approximately $4 million to Northrop Grumman's Information Technology (IT) sector and could rise to more than $8 million if all options are exercised.
"Northrop Grumman IT brings industry leadership in systems integration, information assurance, PKI and smart card solutions to implement the FBI's PKI project," said Jim Perriello, president, Government Solutions, Northrop Grumman IT. "The contract is for an enterprise level deployment for the FBI, which is the first major Department of Justice bureau to implement PKI. The potential exists for PKI expansion to include all of Justice Department."
PKI is an infrastructure of cryptographic software that generates two large mathematically related numbers that are stored on a user's Web browser or in a piece of hardware such as a smart card. These numbers help identify the user.
Northrop Grumman IT will provide program management, design and implementation services to maintain the PKI that will support 50,000 FBI employees.
Northrop Grumman IT's PKI will provide identification and authentication, confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation services. The system will be able to accommodate growth of the Justice Department; it is also scalable and will be deployed in multiple phases.
"The government anticipates transforming the PKI smart card into an FBI common access card to provide physical and system access control," Perriello added.
As the program expands to other Justice Department entities, there is potential for an additional 200,000 certificates, which are similar to electronic "credit cards" that establish a person's credentials when conducting business on the Internet. These digital certificates can identify an individual or an organization and directory services that can store and, when necessary, revoke certificates. The certificate contains a person's name, serial number, expiration dates, a copy of the certificate holder's public key, and the digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority so that a recipient can verify that the certificate is real.
Northrop Grumman IT will deploy a completely commercial-off-the-shelf solution which requires no modifications, minimizing risk, and enabling initial deployment by December 2003.
Work on this contract will be performed at the Northrop Grumman IT site in Reston, Va., with deployment to FBI headquarters, Washington, D.C., and one FBI field office in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Northrop Grumman IT team members on this contract include PEC Solutions, Inc., Fairfax, Va.; Entrust, Inc., Addison, Texas; and Schlumberger Limited, New York, N.Y.
Northrop Grumman Information Technology, headquartered in Herndon, Va., is a trusted IT leader and premier provider of advanced IT solutions, engineering and business services for government and commercial clients. The company's expertise spans such areas as information systems integration; information technology security; command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR); homeland security; enterprise hardware and software solutions; training and simulation; base and range support; signals intelligence; health informatics; space systems; and specialized scientific, engineering and technical services.
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