FICAM’s New Resources Help Solve Government’s Identity Management Challenge
In today’s digital world, it’s imperative that government agencies safeguard citizens’ physical and electronic security. In the world of Federal IT, adopting and advancing cybersecurity can’t be accomplished in one day, or by one agency. Federal agencies must work together to tackle complex problems and stay ahead of evolving network threats.
The Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management (FICAM) team helps agencies enable the right individual to access the right resource, at the right time, for the right reason. To aid in this mission, the FICAM program has launched a series of revamped digital tools for our customers, including:
- The newly redesigned IDManagement.gov; and
- The debut of the FICAM Playbooks.
IDManagement.gov Reimagined
The new IDManagement.gov website is organized from a customer-first perspective, based on what you’re trying to accomplish. The site can help you get involved in the FICAM community, learn about FICAM services, and build ICAM systems. You’ll find improved:
- Logical navigation, organized around top tasks and customer needs;
- Improved searchability via the DigitalGov Search application;
- Clear content, written in plain language so it’s easier to understand; and
- Relevant resources on topics important to users, including new playbooks and the Approved Products List (APL).
In the coming months, we’ll continue to analyze site traffic to improve the most highly used topics and tools, and we also plan to launch a website customer satisfaction survey.
Live FICAM Playbooks
The FICAM Playbooks were created to share all the valuable ICAM information agencies have developed over the years in an online format. Besides providing centralized information-sharing across government, the FICAM Playbooks also provide a place for agencies and private industry partners to submit ICAM-related issues and questions, and tap the expertise of the FICAM community to solve these challenges.
Behind the scenes, the FICAM Playbooks leverage GitHub to create content and submit issues. However, GitHub alone didn’t meet all of our hosting requirements for having a U.S. government compliant website. In this case, we also leverage the Federalist platform to host the content and maintain standard U.S. federal government website requirements (.gov URLs, HTTPS, etc.).
Three FICAM Playbook sites are now live:
- Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Guide – focuses on using PIV credentials for logical access such as authenticating to networks or applications, or digitally signing and encrypting. Using PIV for physical access will be covered under another set of guides.
- Enterprise Architecture Guide – a migration of the FICAM Implementation Roadmap 2.0 is more concise, easy to understand and visually appealing. Additionally, the guide reflects the latest updates in cybersecurity, enterprise architecture and the ICAM policy and technology landscape.
- Federal Public Key Infrastructure (FPKI) Guide – information about the Federal Public Key Infrastructure including commonly used links, tools, tips, and information for leveraging the Federal PKI.
In the coming months, we also plan to release the following playbooks:
- Physical Access Control Systems
- Identity Management
- Access Management
- Federation
- Program Management
Has your team recently solved one of your agency’s own ICAM issues, or do you want to become more involved in the ICAM Community? We’re always looking for Playbook contributors. Get started by browsing the list of issues in the PIV, FPKI, and enterprise architecture guides, and read our contributing page to see how you can submit your own content to the FICAM Playbooks!
If you’re looking for help on a particular issue, or just have a question, add a new issue to any of the issues lists. You may also email us to request support.
GSA’s Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management (FICAM) Team helps federal agencies implement Identity, Credential and Access Management (ICAM) by sharing best practices and guidance through the new FICAM Tech Hub_._ This post was originally published on the GSA blog.
