2nd Annual PKI Conference

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) hosted the 2nd Annual PKI Conference on August 25, 2015. New OFR Director Oliver Potts welcomed the attendees and briefly talked about OFR’s role in encouraging increased PKI submissions to the Office of the Federal Register.

PKI, or Public Key Infrastructure, allows federal agencies to submit documents to our office digitally for publication via our web portal. This process helps agencies reduce costs and save time. So far in 2015, an average of 49% of documents published by our office have been received digitally.

The Information Services and Technology Division (IS&T) leads OFR’s efforts to increase agency digital submissions. IS&T staff member Ben Jordi spoke to 84 federal agency representatives who attended the conference either in person or via webinar about what PKI is, how to digitally sign documents, how to submit them, and the challenges facing federal agencies in implementing their programs. Ben demonstrated how to use the General Services Administration’s (GSA) PKCS7Sign tool as well as OFR’s web portal.

The annual conference is an opportunity for agencies around the federal government to gather and discuss the challenges and solutions they experience in implementing and maintaining PKI programs at their agencies. In 2014, 31 federal agencies sent 95% or more of their documents to the OFR for publication digitally. We currently have 100 agencies submitting documents digitally to our office.