The warning, in a Feb. 2 memo from Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew, comes seven years after President Bush first directed agencies to roll out smart ID cards to federal employees and contractors who work at federal facilities and use federal networks. The directive, called Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12), provided no additional money for agencies to perform required background checks, purchase the cards, or purchase and install systems to read the cards' enhanced security features.
Each agency must issue an implementation policy by March 31 that would require employees and contractors to use the cards to enter buildings and access computers, according to guidelines accompanying Lew's memo. The plan must specify how the agency would use development, modernization and enhancement (DME) funding to begin purchasing card readers and other equipment by October. Each agency also must identify someone by Feb. 25 who will be responsible for implementing the policy.
Agencies must also include funding they need to fully implement the credential system in their 2012 budgets.
Agencies must use DME funds to buy card readers and associated software before they can use those funds for other purposes, such as IT upgrades and systems support, according to Lew's memo.
More than 4.5 million out of 5.7 million employees and contractors have the credentials, which contain digital fingerprints, according to DHS. A total of 5 million have completed annual background checks. But agencies have not made implementing the readers a top priority.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Andy Medici
Quelle/Source: Federal Times, 10.02.2011
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