The 4 Bridges Forum (4BF) today announced an awards program to recognize innovative uses of high assurance digital identities utilizing public key infrastructure (PKI) in the public and private sectors.

PKI is the efficient and cost-effective, security-oriented information technology behind a growing global Internet trust network. Its use, in the form of unique cyber-identities, facilitates intragovernmental, business-to-business and business-to-government Internet transactions. It achieves this by protecting against identity fraud and by eliminating the need for slow and costly paper-based processes.

The 4BF expects to draw nominations from the widespread but often unrecognized use of PKI by US federal agencies, where it is a key component of the Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentials held by all federal employees and from the growing number of industries using PKI technology to manage digital identities and access control.

Award nominations are being sought in each of the four following categories:

• Innovation (new and effective uses of PKI)
• Business value (quantitative and qualitative return on PKI investment)
• Federation (new and effective uses of federation)
• Collaboration (All submissions in this category should focus on the use of PKI to improve collaboration. These submissions may include a) role of innovative tools resulting in improved collaborative outcomes; b) issuers with innovative ways to bring communities together; c) other collaboration-enabling initiatives.)

A single, grand award will be selected from all category winners.

Nominations can be made at http://www.the4BF.com through Friday, September 14.

Each nomination will be judged by a panel comprising representatives from each of the four PKI bridges: the Federal PKI Policy Authority (serving all federal agencies), CertiPath (serving industry, including aerospace and defense), SAFE-BioPharma (serving the global biopharmaceutical and healthcare sectors), and the Research and Education Bridge Certification Authority (a PKI bridge for use within the K-20 education and research sectors).

Award winners will be announced in early November, and awards will be presented November 27, during the 11th Annual Smart Card Alliance Government Conference in Washington, D.C.

4BF Participants

The Federal PKI Policy Authority was established to enable trusted transactions within the government and between government and its industry partners. http://www.idmanagement.gov/pages.cfm/page/Federal-PKI

For more information on the SAFE-BioPharma standard for digital identity and digital signatures used in life science and healthcare settings, visit http://www.safe-biopharma.org.

CertiPath is the pioneer in establishing interoperable trusted identities for collaboration within Aerospace and Defense via a standards-based PKI bridge. www.certipath.com

The Research and Education Bridge Certification Authority (REBCA) was developed at Dartmouth College to facilitate trusted electronic communications within and between all institutions of higher education within the US, as well as with federal and state governments. It is now open to all education and research institutions globally. www.rebca.org