The National Intelligence Community (NIC) is on the hunt for a new contractor to design, document, and deliver a common access card system, known as One Pass, to access building facilities of the 10 Australian security and intelligence agencies.

According to the tender document, the service provider will work closely with the NIC agency security and information technology security advisors to complete a detailed design for the implementation of the system across NIC facilities, commencing with those located in Canberra, including those operated by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), and the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Under the requirements, the system may need to be classified up to "secret" level, can be connected via existing community infrastructure, and enables encrypted, up-to-date credential information to be exchanged between agencies to enable physical building access.

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In addition, the prospective contractor will be encouraged to use biometric technology to enable two-factor authentication in the system.

Following the execution of the system, which is expected to begin from 30 September 2019 and conclude by 27 March 2020, individual NIC agencies will be responsible for the implementation of One Pass at their own premises.

"It is expected that these deliverables, once supplied to NIC agencies, will position them to do this with their vendor of choice," the tender document said.

"The detailed design must provide empirical costings that take into consideration potential reuse of existing infrastructure; EACS refresh cycles, and other offsets that are identified through the process."

The release of the tender request comes off the back of the Office of National Intelligence concluding in a study that One Pass is "feasible".

Submissions for the tender will close on 30 August 2019.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) last week announced it wants a better view into social, technological, political, and policy changes from around the nation and abroad, and seeking a solution to compile this information.

Publishing a request for expressions of interest (EOI) for the provision of an Open Source Information Collection Solution, the AFP expects the solution to provide daily reporting.

Meanwhile, ASIO recently went to market seeking for one or more service providers to develop and provision a handful of integrated core technology platforms for the agency, as part of the first steps of the organisation-wide digital technology transformation.

The first work package -- the Enterprise Technology Platform (ETP) -- is for future technology infrastructure that ASIO said will underpin and support its core data platform, applications, the digital user experience platform, and other business and analytic capabilities.

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