ActivIdentity tapped by UK police force
24 March, 2009
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ActivIdentity Corp., a provider of strong authentication and credential management, announced it has won a tender by West Midlands Police Authority in the UK (WMPA) to deploy a smart card and credential management solution to create secure electronic identities for its 16,000 staff members. West Midlands Police is the second largest police force in the UK, covering an area of 348 square miles and serving a population of almost 2.6 million.
Providing every individual in the force with a multi-application smart card is the first step for the law enforcement agency towards achieving National Police Improvement Agency’s Identity Access Management compliance.
Driven by the recommendations of the Bichard Inquiry calling for improved sharing of information by police forces, the ActivIdentity implementation will enable West Midlands to securely manage permission levels for each user when accessing internal networks or sharing data with other forces.
The smart card will serve as the new police card or police staff ID. This smart card, which follows Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS 201-compliant), will not only bridge the physical and logical access but also manage all the logical requirements within West Midlands that are used for accessing national applications and securing the exchange of data, including desktop log-on and digital signatures.
Implementation of the project, including ActivID Card Management System and ActivClient middleware, will have a phased roll-out over the next year, with an in-house team dedicated to introducing the new technology to 160 sites across the authority. The next step will integrate Single Sign-On technology into the smart card using a secure PIN to manage passwords and access multiple applications.
