DISA Plans January Start for ICAM Pilot

The Department of Defense’s Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is planning to pilot an enterprise-focused Identity, Credential, and Access Management (or “ICAM”) solution in early 2021, according to a Nextgov report.

The news comes by way of a webinar last week in which DISA officials provided further information about the project. DISA Cyber Development Directorate head Dr. Serena Chan indicated that a prototype ICAM solutions is now being implemented for testing with a subset of DoD applications, which will begin in January.

It isn’t yet clear exactly what form the new ICAM will take, but officials indicated that it is part of a broader effort to move the Department toward a zero trust cybersecurity architecture, and to implement more advanced authentication systems than the currently used Common Access Cards.

That suggests the ICAM solution might in some way be related to DISA’s longstanding efforts to develop a ‘patterns of life’ authentication system to replace the Common Access Card. That project reportedly revolved around mobile-based sensors enabling authentication based on things like voice and even gait recognition, with AI specialist Twosense.ai having been contracted to help.

The ICAM program, meanwhile, is being spearheaded by General Dynamic Information Technology, which won an exclusive “Other Transaction Authority” contract at the end of June. General Dynamics is one of the largest defense contractors in the world, and prominently highlights cloud, AI, and cybersecurity technologies on its website.

The ICAM solution has been designed in the wake of an ICAM policy update issued by the Office of Management and Budget last year that set continuous authentication as a goal for future identity and access management frameworks.

Source: Nextgov

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October 19, 2020 – by Alex Perala