ACES enables individuals and businesses to conduct business with the government electronically via
the use of digital signature technology. In September 1999, the U.S. General Services
Administration (GSA) named IdenTrust as the first ACES Certificate Authority(CA) to operate
its digital certificate and repository services under the ACES contract; thereby enabling
IdenTrust to issue digital certificates under ACES task orders from federal agencies.
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Facts about the ACES Program
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Much of the impetus behind ACES flows from the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA), which mandates that agencies shift paper processes to the Internet by 2003. |
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The primary goal of ACES is to leverage information technology to deliver comprehensive government services to Americans and to dramatically increase government productivity. |
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ACES is intended to enable individuals and businesses to efficiently conduct business with the government electronically via the use of digital signature technology. |
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Government agencies, individuals, and individuals acting on behalf of businesses may receive digital certificates that positively identify them online. |
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ACES certificates enable agencies to authenticate users for access control as well as file/form submission. |
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IdenTrust ACES Certificate Center is an online process where agency employees, individuals, and
individuals acting on behalf of businesses can apply and purchase ACES certificates. There are two
types of ACES certificates:
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Business Representative
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Authenticate yourself as an employee of a government agency or valid business |
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Digitally sign documents to replace "ink" signatures (e.g. signing a contract) |
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Authenticate yourself to gain access to a PKI-enabled application (e.g. a secure web server) |
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ACES Business Representative certificates are intended to be used at the medium level of
assurance relevant to environments where risks and consequences of data compromise are
moderate. This may include transactions having substantial monetary value or risk of fraud,
or involving access to private information where the likelihood of malicious access is
substantial.
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Unaffiliated Individual
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Authenticate yourself |
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Digitally sign documents to replace "ink" signatures (e.g. signing a contract) |
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Authenticate yourself to gain access to a PKI-enabled application (e.g. a secure web server) |
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ACES Unaffiliated Individual certificates are intended to be used at the basic level of assurance
relevant to environments where there are risks and consequences of data compromise, but they are
not considered to be of major significance. This may include access to private information where
the likelihood of malicious access is not high. It is assumed at this security level that users
are not likely to be malicious.
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BUY YOUR ACES CERTIFICATE
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