PKI Testbed
NCSA is currently partnering with the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) and the Illinois Terrorism Task Force (ITTF) in the development of a secure credentialing system for the State of Illinois. Initial efforts are focused on the deployment of smartcards for first responders (police, fire, HAZMAT, EMT, etc.) at the scene of an emergency, to identify qualified personnel to enter the scene. The smartcards will be printed with a photo ID and will include PKI identity credentials issued by the State PKI, fingerprint templates for biometric authentication, and signed certifications of responder capabilities (weapons certification, hazmat certification, team membership, etc.), to be presented at the perimeter of a scene for entrance. A field application on a laptop will verify the smartcard holder's identity, including fingerprint identification, and display the cardholder's certifications to the law enforcement personnel at the perimeter.

ILEAS has subcontracted to NCSA to test this initial system, to be developed by Entrust Corporation. The subcontract does not include funds to purchase hardware to perform the tests. The NCASSR PKI Testbed will assist with this effort by supporting the purchase of smartcards, smartcard readers, fingerprint readers, and computer hardware/software for this testing effort. These hardware/software resources will allow NCSA to perform more extensive testing by considering different hardware combinations and configurations for the initial project.

Beyond this initial effort, the ITTF has expressed interest in expanding the use of these credentials in other scenarios. In particular, there is interest in the use of contact-less smartcards and RFID chips for more convenient authentication not requiring direct contact with the smartcard reader (for example, enabling first responders to pass more efficiently through the perimeter gate). Integration with existing RFID systems for secure building access and other applications is also under consideration. The ITTF vision is for a single statewide credential with multiple uses that inter-operates with federal standards. By experimenting with these technologies now, for demonstration to the ITTF, NCSA will help the State move forward in this effort and will demonstrate NCSA's continued technological leadership.

The PKI Testbed is valuable for the Credential Management Services project, by enabling experimentation with hardware-enabled credential repositories and integration with hardware tokens. For the Secure Group Communication project, the Testbed provides hardware for evaluating protocol performance, including servers with Itanium processors and cryptographic hardware accelerators. For the Key Management Scalability Study, the Testbed provides Certification Authority servers and clients for scalability testing. The contact-less smartcards may also be useful platforms for some of the Sensors and Software Defined Radio security work.
 
Project Leads
Jim Basney, NCSA

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The National Center for Advanced Secure Systems Research NCASSR) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is a multi-institutional cybersecurity research team. NCASSR focuses basic and applied research necessary to develop next generation information security technologies that address national cybersecurity needs. NCASSR is led by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and supported by funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR).


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