GSA Joins Board Of Transglobal Secure Collaboration Program

PRESS RELEASE

HERNDON, Va. (Dec. 2, 2008) - The Transglobal Secure Collaboration Program (TSCP) today announced the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the products and services arm of the U.S. Federal Government, as its newest member. The GSA's Office of Government-wide Policy (OGP), an office of the GSA that ensures government agencies develop and utilize the best, most cost effective management practices and the Office of Technology Strategy, a component of the OGP committed to providing leadership and central direction for the use of electronic government and technology in the federal government are the GSA offices that will be actively collaborating with the TSCP.

The GSA joins the TSCP's expanding line-up of organizations, governments and technology providers committed to driving common standards for secure collaboration across the global aerospace and defense industry. As a member of the TSCP's governance board, the GSA will contribute expertise in policy mapping and credentialing, working to execute a clear vision of interoperability among TSCP members and the U.S. Federal Government.

"It is very important for the GSA to make sure that higher level identity assurance becomes a reality not just in the U.S. government, but worldwide," said Peter Alterman, deputy associate administrator for technology strategy, GSA Office of Government-wide Policy. "The TSCP gives us a voice in developing universal standards to verify the identities of our trusted industry and government partners" no matter who or where they may be."

The GSA will dedicate a team of IT architects to the TSCP's security initiatives, working to align the practices and policies of the federal government to the TSCP specifications it helps develop. The administration plans to leverage the experience it has in consolidating the trust relationships of more than 15 million GSA contractors to foster new secure business partnerships across U.S. government agencies and TSCP members.

"Having the GSA on the governance board brings us one step closer to our goal of extending secure paths of communication across industry and government on a global scale," said Keith Ward, TSCP outreach director and enterprise identity management and security director at Northrop Grumman. "The GSA will not only help our members collaborate securely with various agencies of the U.S. federal government, but their participation will also help make sure the federal government is collaborating securely with the rest of the world."

As the only government-industry partnership of its kind, the TSCP works to define specifications for secure collaboration, information sharing and identity assurance in mission-critical environments. Members include the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD), Netherlands MoD, BAE Systems, Boeing, EADS, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Rolls-Royce. For more information on membership, please visit www.tscp.org.

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About TSCP

TSCP is the only government-industry partnership specifically focused on designing solutions to address the most critical issues facing the A&D industry: mitigating the compliance, complexity, cost and IT security risks inherent in large-scale, multi-national collaborative programs. The TSCP was founded in 2002, and has delivered several specifications and guidance documents on securing A&D supply chain data. The group today focuses on identity federation policies and governance. The TSCP is open to government organizations, prime contractors, integrators, suppliers and member trade groups. For more information, please visit www.tscp.org.

About GSA

GSA provides a centralized delivery system of products and services to the federal government, leveraging its enormous buying power to get the best value for taxpayers.

Founded in 1949, GSA manages more than one-fourth of the government's total procurement dollars and influences the management of $500 billion in federal assets, including 8,600 government-owned or leased buildings and 208,000 vehicles.

GSA helps preserve our past and define our future, as a steward of more than 425 historic properties, and as manager of USA.gov, the official portal to federal government information and services.

GSA's mission to provide superior workplaces, expert technology solutions, acquisition services, purchasing and E-Gov travel solutions and management policies, at best value, allows federal agencies to focus on their core missions.

For more information, please visit www.gsa.gov.

Media contact: Michael Italiano Corporate Ink Public Relations (617) 969-9192 [email protected]