GSA’s First Cloud-Based Physical Access System Is Implemented At Neal Smith Federal Building

BridgePoint™ Systems, the broadest provider of smart-card readers and enrollment software for Physical Access Control Systems (PACs), today announced that Neal Smith Federal Building has implemented its TrustAlert™ PACS (formerly TrustZone PACS). BridgePoint and its partner, EmbarkIT, installed the new system ahead of schedule and within the facility’s budget parameters.

TrustAlert PACS is the only single-source Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-enabled system that meets current and future federal standards and guidelines including HSPD-12 and FIPS-201-2. Recently certified to operate on a GSA network, BridgePoint was the only firm capable of delivering a single, tightly integrated PACS solution.

BridgePoint utilized Neal Smith Federal building’s existing infrastructure to install TrustAlert PACS, all-the-while using a cloud-based protocol. This eliminated the need for locally-based IT server and system resources. The new Physical Access System is much more energy efficient than the previous security system because it leverages the General Service Administration’s (GSA’s) Wide Area Network (WAN) and remote IT infrastructure located in Kansas City, Missouri.

Among its many requirements, the facility needed a system that was compliant with federal security regulations and approved by the GSA. In replacing its 10-year old legacy system, the 400,000 square-foot Neal Smith Federal Building facility also wanted to implement a new system that would be interoperable among its 40 plus agencies and more than 500 employees who were already using a Personal Identification Verification (PIV) credential. The new system would require the participation of 300 other non PIV employees who would soon transition to using the PIV-based system.

To ensure business continuity without any disruption, EmbarkIT and BridgePoint personnel installed the new TrustAlert Physical Access System in four days, doing most of the work during the off-peak, evening hours. The system also required the installation of 23 BridgePoint TrustPoint Readers on parking gates, elevator controls and automated doors.

In advance of the system going live, GSA and EmbarkIT personnel were able to use BridgePoint’s TrustAlert Enrollment system to enroll all employees and contractors who required building access, setting up different levels of security clearance and access permission. By enrolling people in this manner, the facility increased its level of security access control and created a long-range plan for ensuring that everyone would soon be on-board to use the system.

According to Neal Smith Federal Building’s project management personnel, BridgePoint TrustAlert Physical Access System addressed the facility’s need to meet security and operational goals, all the while lowering the facility’s carbon footprint.

The project management team was pleased with BridgePoint’s plan, which included enrolling all participants in advance. The project lead was especially impressed with BridgePoint’s diligence in ensuring that the system was properly tested by IT staff and approved by the GSA — long before implementation.

“We are honored to have been selected as the PACS provider of choice by Neal Smith Federal Building’s project management team,” said Thomas E. Corder, president and CEO of BridgePoint Systems. “Working in conjunction with Embark IT, the facility’s certified 8a, IT contractor, we carefully considered the building’s current system architecture. This installation was particularly innovative in that it took advantage of a cloud-based network to address the facility’s energy conservation requirements while still maintaining the sophisticated security practices that were mandatory for a project of this kind.”

More About BridgePoint TrustAlert PACS
Fully integrating FIPS-201 and NIST 800-116 core functionality, TrustAlert PACS is designed from the ground-up as a PKI-enabled system. TrustAlert Enrollment adds Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) based certificate validation and TrustPoint Readers employ PKI challenge-response at the door to verify the certificate private key. All of these PKI mechanisms work in concert to mitigate the potential of counterfeit or cloned PIV or CAC credentials.

Using a PIN verification, expiration date, biometric check and photo display, BridgePoint TrustAlert PACS is uniquely capable of operating in lower level 1 and level 2 security modes as well as higher security level 3 and 4 modes, which can being switched on without additional cost or upgrades. The system is interoperable with all government issued Common Access Card (CAC), PIV and PIV-compatible credentials.

About BridgePoint Systems
For more than a decade, BridgePoint Systems has delivered solutions to help security managers face an ever-changing landscape of threats and challenges. Located at the edge of Silicon Valley, the company offers innovative technology that embeds public key infrastructure in an agile, user friendly way for assuring identity in physical access systems. Among other pioneering efforts, BridgePoint Systems was the first U.S. company to develop smart card readers for use by the Department of Defense in a physical access system. The company was also first to integrate the Department of Defense’s CAC with biometrics in a real world deployment and first to install an interoperable Personal Identification Verification reader in a government, multi-tenant facility.

Some of the nation’s largest government contractors and security integrators such as the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marines, Army Corps of Engineers, General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) use BridgePoint Systems’ technology. All of BridgePoint Systems’ products are securely designed and built in the United States. For more information, visit BridgePoint Systems’ website at http://www.BridgePointsystems.com or call (510) 346-1510.

Media Contact:
Andrea Corry
TopMind PR
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