Identity Management system unveiled

At the recent Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) event, HP and Microsoft unveiled an Identity Management (IDM) solution designed to enable secure, real time collaboration between government bodies, the police and security forces.

Using a scenario based on an emergency counter-terrorism situation, HP and Microsoft showed how local constabularies, the Home Office, the MoD and other agencies could share a real time collaboration forum enabling the exchange of critical information, application-sharing and the maintenance of a single command and control log and a single decision log.

Currently, the different organisations involved in a crisis situation keep individual logs of decisions and exchange information by telephone and fax, making reliable auditing time-consuming. The HP-Microsoft solution speeds the process, while ensuring it guarantees the utmost security required in such sensitive situations.

“Secure information access and collaboration are essential if government departments are to collaborate successfully at an operational level,” said Steve Beswick, Head of Central Government, Microsoft UK. “This federated IDM environment provides secure access to information using familiar, low-cost commercial off-the-shelf technologies.”

At the heart of the solution is Microsoft Active Directory with Federation and Rights Management Services, on top of which sits HP ProtectTools, which integrate seamlessly with Microsoft software to provide enhanced security for operating environments, applications, devices and mission-critical information.

Delegates at UK CWID 2005 were impressed with the technology on display, especially as it is available for rapid deployment today. “Having a secure environment for the instant exchange of information and real time decision making will be critical in delivering rapid and appropriate responses in emergency situations,” said David Williams, retired Squadron Leader, RAF who attended the event. “This is exactly the type of technology that will make a difference in how we successfully handle counter-terrorism situations,” he concluded.