CONTRACT AWARD: SSP-LITRONIC WINS $2.3 MILLION INITIAL CONTRACT FOR DOD SECURITY INFRASTRUCTURE.

SSP-Litronic, the government enterprise division of data security provider SSP Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq:SSPX), has announced it will provide an estimated $2.3 million in smart card and digital certificate management software and engineering services as a core technology provider to the General Dynamics C4 Systems KMI Team on a Department of Defense (DoD) contract to implement the secure Key Management Infrastructure (KMI), a significant element of the DoD's long-term roadmap for an in-depth information assurance strategy.

SSP-Litronic has a long history of developing public key infrastructure (PKI) technology and open, interoperable security products for the government sector and has been chosen to be a subcontractor to General Dynamics C4 Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics and the winning prime contractor awarded the $24.4 million contract from the National Security Agency's (NSA) Maryland Procurement Office.

This contract, known as KMI CI-1, encompasses the first capability increment of the DoD's KMI and includes the development and fielding of a system for providing high-assurance digital certificates to DoD and other government agency users for critical online identification and authentication in electronic commerce and data exchange.

SSP Profile Manager, a comprehensive smart card and digital certificate issuance and lifecycle management application, will be used to satisfy certificate and token management requirements, as the DoD's high-grade digital certificates have strict criteria for the distribution and use of certificates, protection and recovery of keys, and stringent auditing requirements.

SSP-Litronic will also provide commercial off the shelf (COTS) PKI client toolkits based upon the SSP NetSign PKI Client product to meet the KMI requirements. The client toolkit enables PKI services for third-party applications, allowing easier development and integration of secure, PKI-based applications and includes an open token interface that will smart card-enable DoD applications for the Target Class 4 token, the DoD's next generation high assurance PKI smart card.

In addition, SSP-Litronic will provide engineering services as a member of the General Dynamics KMI Development Team under contract to General Dynamics.

Acting as member of the General Dynamics KMI Team, SSP-Litronic will support requirements definition, interface design, systems design, software development, integration and test in areas where SSP-Litronic expertise relating to government and commercial PKI products and technology can be applied to the overall benefit of the KMI program.

As part of the General Dynamics team, SSP-Litronic will also be partnered with Booz-Allen & Hamilton (BAH), SRA International and Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP). CTP and SSP-Litronic will provide commercial best-practices based on their Internet-related experience, while BAH will provide systems and security engineering and SRA will support Global Directories Services (GDS) integration.

This contract is the first in the incremental plan that is intended to provide the foundation for achieving the DoD's Key Management target architecture. Work to be completed includes the development and fielding of a Class 4 PKI certification management system that integrates multiple Certificate Authorities (CA).

The DoD's published roadmap and policy memorandum has established an aggressive timetable for its PKI evolution -- carefully structured to allow adjustment in implementation features and provide a transparent transition.