Security firm Entrust said this week that it has received the final government approval that allows shared service providers to offer Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services within Federal environments.

Entrust has been given the General Services Administration (GSA) Authority to Operate (ATO).

The ATO is the result of a certification and accreditation review process that the GSA conducts on shared service providers.

The process is intended to alleviate the need for each agency to complete their own certification and accreditation review prior to taking advantage of the Entrust service.

Entrust Managed Services PKI is cross-certified with the US Federal Common Policy Certificate Authority, and allows State governments to interact with Federal agencies without having to cross-certify themselves.

Entrust's service includes certificate and security management functions, including key generation, storage and recovery.

It also offers certificate and certificate revocation list generation and distribution, certificate update and renewal, and certificate token initialisation, programming and management.

As well as serving as the basis of the Federal Bridge Certification Authority, Entrust PKI serves customers including the States of Illinois and Virginia, the Departments of State, Treasury, Energy and Justice, Nasa, the Government Printing Office, the US Patent and Trademark Office and the FBI.