WASHINGTON-The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National Archives' Office of the Federal Register (OFR) have been honored for the innovative use of public key infrastructure (PKI) for authenticating electronic submissions to the Federal Register. The two agencies jointly received a Business Value Award from the Four Bridges Forum, a coalition between major Federal agencies, the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, aerospace and defense contractors and colleges and universities to facilitate trusted electronic business transactions. GPO and OFR use PKI certificates and digital signatures to assure that the content electronically submitted and filed by Federal agencies for publication in the Federal Register is authentic. By utilizing PKI technology, GPO and OFR have reduced costs, eliminated paper use, and decreased the turnaround time for the submitting and publishing content in the Federal Register.

PKI facilitates intra-governmental, business-to-business, and business-to-government Internet transactions by protecting against identity fraud and eliminating the need for slow and costly paper-based processes.

"PKI is an example of how GPO uses state of the art technologies to best serve our customers and the public in an official, digital, and secure way," said Acting Public Printer Davita Vance-Cooks. "GPO has a longstanding partnership with the OFR in making the Federal Register available to the public. Our deployment of PKI technology improves the efficiency of producing this important document and assures the public that the digital Federal Register is official and authentic."

GPO is the Federal Government's primary resource for producing, procuring, cataloging, indexing, authenticating, disseminating, and preserving the official information products of the U.S. Government in both digital and tangible formats. GPO is responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the Federal Government, including U.S. passports for the Department of State as well as the official publications of Congress, the White House, and other Federal agencies. In addition to publication sales, GPO provides for permanent public access to Federal Government information at no charge through GPO's Federal Digital System (www.fdsys.gov) and through partnerships with approximately 1,200 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program.

For more information, please visit www.gpo.gov.