Verizon Business announced earlier this week that they will be providing new identity credentialing services to the nearly 500,000 government employees and contractors, who work for the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs.

According to a statement issued by the company, the contract, estimated to be worth $6.1 million, is for a one-year term with two optional extensions and "represents one of the largest deployments of identity credentialing to date under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12."

HSPD-12 requires completion of FBI-based background screening for all federal workers to gain access to government facilities and IT systems.

Verizon Business said it will manage the VA’s credential solutions from a secure data center that is supported 24 hours a day, seven days a week.