Department of Homeland Security
Steve Howard is passionate about identity management, identity credentials and the resulting impact on our national infrastructure as time moves forward. He views this as a fascinatingly complex area, demanding knowledge from every job he has ever held. His focus within ID management over the last 15 years has allowed him to contribute to standards defining identity credentials, operational use of identity credentials, and the technologies that are appropriate for a given application environment's needs for identity. These efforts span several government issued ID documents, design concerns around breeder documents, Public Key Infrastructure technology and services, and operational use of ID within federal/state/local government, enterprise and aviation security.
Steve currently supports Department of Homeland Security's Enterprise Identity Management Office: 1) Subject Matter Expert in PIV/PIV-I technology services and architectures, 2) FICAM solutions, 3) Active support to develop government and industry policies and standards around strong identity and its operational use.
Steve's first-hand experience with cryptographic solutions, smart card systems, PKI and biometric technologies has contributed to several definitive standards, including FIPS 201 which specifies PIV requirements for federal government employees and contractors, PIV-I for non-Federal issuers, TWIC, and RTCA DO-230B titled "Integrated Security System Standard for Airport Access Control" for all U.S. airports.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer and Communication Sciences from the University of Michigan, 1981.