HERNDON, Va., March 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Exostar, the leading provider of secure collaboration solutions to the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry, announced today it has been awarded a contract to provide design authority services for the Transglobal Secure Collaboration Program (TSCP) in 2008. Through this innovative program, Exostar will work with the leading companies in the A&D industry and government defense departments to set the standards by which international companies and governments will securely exchange sensitive electronic information.
The TSCP reference architecture will also support compliance with various national and international export control, government security, personal privacy protection, intellectual property and identity and access management restrictions.
"As business models change and more global companies increase their reliance on their partners to deliver products to their government customers, the ability to collaborate securely becomes ever more critical," said Jim Cisneros , TSCP Governance Board chairman and deputy chief information officer in the Future Combat Systems unit at Boeing.
This will be Exostar's third major contract to provide the Design Authority services for the TSCP. In 2007, the TSCP released 'Secure E-mail Version 1', having tested technology and processes to enable secure e-mail using public key infrastructure (PKI) and trust bridges. Additionally, the TSCP tested and approved technology and processes for enabling the sharing of information for Document Sharing with Identity Federation (DSIF). DSIF has particular applicability in secure collaborative environments where federated identity management is required, enabling access to information based on identity profiles and strength of credentials.
"With Exostar's history of building secure multi-enterprise collaborative networks, we were the logical choice to facilitate the design that will define the future standards for secure information sharing among trusted partners," said Kevin Lowdermilk , president and CEO of Exostar.
The TSCP is a cooperative effort by leading A&D firms, including BAE Systems, The Boeing Company, EADS/Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Rolls-Royce, and is supported by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Netherlands Ministry of Defence (MoD). With the new business model of cross-industry, multinational collaboration, the charter of the TSCP is to create detailed specifications that foster interoperability while remaining product and vendor independent. To accomplish this, the TSCP is selective about the standards they support.
"TSCP members are knowledgeable advocates and consumers of secure collaboration capabilities but performing the R&D to develop cross-industry specifications is not core to their missions," said Jeff Nigriny, Exostar's CSO. "The TSCP requires the specialized information security and external interoperability knowledge that they have contracted for with Exostar."
By following the TSCP collaborative framework, an organization can establish trust with its partners and comply with different international and national laws and regulations. The framework will also enable reduced risk through a standardized set of criteria, reduced compliance costs through efficiency and effectiveness and reduced implementation time.
To read more about the published TSCP specifications, please visit its website at http://www.tscp.org.
About Exostar
Exostar's Trusted Workspace powers secure multi-enterprise information sharing, collaboration and business process integration throughout the extended value chain. Exostar was founded in 2000 to support the complex trading needs of the world's largest aerospace and defense companies, including BAE SYSTEMS, The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co. and Rolls-Royce. Exostar's identity assurance products and on-demand business applications reduce risk, improve agility and strengthen trading partner relationships and profitability for over 40,000 companies worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.exostar.com.
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 http://www.tscp.org.
Media contact: Lesley Cannata Corporate Ink Public Relations (617) 969-9192 [email protected]SOURCE Exostar
