Lockheed Martin Tackles Identify Management in the Supply Chain

Aerospace giant adopts Exostar solution to securely link to federal agencies and industry partners, manage digital credentials for 100,000 employees

Aerospace giant adopts Exostar solution to securely link to federal agencies and industry partners, manage digital credentials for 100,000 employees

Herndon, VA — July 5, 2006 — Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has tapped industry supply network Exostar to provide an enterprise solution for digital identity management. Lockheed Martin will use Exostar's Enterprise Identity Solution (EIS) to issue and manage digital credentials for over 100,000 employees.

EIS allows users to establish trust with third-parties through common standards for technology, business process, policy and governance implementation. Leveraging EIS, Lockheed Martin will be able to meet evolving requirements and collaborate securely with government agencies, strategic partners and suppliers, according to Exostar. The solution is scheduled to go live in June.

"Implementing company-wide identity management is a required business process, not only to serve government customers but also to streamline secure communications with partners and suppliers," said Joseph Cleveland, Lockheed Martin's chief information officer.

Exostar said that Enterprise Identity Solution, launched in December 2005, offers process workflow that enforces quality and rigor in credential management; technical integration into existing enterprise identity directories; and standardized process and governance models. EIS works with the various enterprise infrastructure components including Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Certificate Services, Oracle, SQL Server and WebSphere.

"Companies have implemented patchwork technologies and developed divergent business processes and policies to secure and manage identities within their organizations," said Vijay Takanti, Exostar's program director for security. "With the inconsistent governance methods to manage identities that have evolved, it's critical to have a tool like EIS that lets different organizations work from common standards and create trust on a many-to-many basis, not just one-to-one."

Aerospace and defense customers can use Exostar's EIS to comply with CertiPath PKI certificate lifecycle management requirements and to store and recover employee encryption keys. EIS is also deployable in other industries requiring a high level of identity assurance and PKI certificate management, such as pharmaceutical and higher education, according to Exostar.

CertiPath, a secure "bridge" directly linking commercial contractors with one another and more than 500,000 colleagues at key government agencies, enables digital credentials to secure documents, e-mail and other exchanges of information between organizations that require a high assurance of someone's identity. The program went live on May 15, when Boeing became the first company to receive cross-certification in this commercial-to-government trust chain. The five other charter member companies — Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and EADS/Airbus — are next in line.

"The government needs assurances that only vetted users have access to sensitive information, such as weapons equipment, aircraft and the software that powers them," said Lockheed Martin's Cleveland. "Lockheed Martin is committed to enabling trusted relationships with our customers, strategic partners and suppliers."


Additional Articles of Interest

For more information on solutions for supply chain security, see "Building the Secure Supply Chain," the Net Best Thing article in the June/July 2003 issue of iSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive) magazine.

— As Motorola leverages information technology to build an extended cyber-enterprise encompassing its supply chain partners and customers, Chief Information Security Officer Bill Boni is helping the company address the risks inherent in sharing information outside the four walls. Read more in "Risky Business," in the June/July 2003 issue of iSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive).


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