Ricoh Americas, a provider of digital office equipment, has launched its Common Access Card (CAC) Authentication Solution V2.0, which is available for exclusive use by the US Department of Defense (DoD).
The new update to the smart card technology offering, developed in response to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) that requires evidence of an individual’s identity to access the DoD’s global computer infrastructure including connected multifunctional products (MFPs), now adds an enhanced scan-to-email feature, Ricoh said.
The company said that the scan-to-email feature offers scan with digital signature and email encryption through secure/multipurpose internet mail extension (S/MIME), a technology that gives authenticated users the ability to digitally sign and encrypt email, allowing only recipients with associated private and public keys to decrypt a message.
According to Ricoh, the Scan-to-Email feature comes integrated into many Ricoh MFPs with 20 to 90 page-per-minute output speeds and requires users to insert their CAC into a reader on the MFP at walk-up. When a user selects scan with digital signature, their user credentials are automatically embedded in the scanned document’s file properties. A token encrypted with the sender’s private key is then sent with the document to the recipient for confirmation using the sender’s public key.
When using email encryption, the sender uses the recipient’s public key to encrypt and lock the email message/attachments. This protects the confidentiality of email communication as only the recipient with the correct key information can decrypt and unlock the email. The Scan-to-Email feature also supports AAA (Adaptable Authentication API) which allows for integration with other Ricoh and third party software and applications, the company said.
Hede Nonaka, executive vice president of marketing and document services and solutions division at Ricoh Americas, said: With the many security threats the government faces, the US Department of Defense needs assurance that their sensitive and classified information will not become compromised. Ricoh’s CAC Authentication Solution V2.0 gives the US Department of Defense the peace of mind that their MFP resources are effectively safeguarded, therefore improving the security and enhancing the integrity of their electronic communications.
