Verizon Business Helps Federal Agency Secure Disaster Areas

At 6:10 on the morning of August 29, 2005, the third-strongest hurricane in U.S. history hit the Gulf Coast. New Orleans took the brunt of Hurricane Katrina's colossal force, as 125 m.p.h. winds and a 25-foot storm surge breached 53 levees and submerged 80 percent of the city. The government declared 90,000 square miles a disaster area and estimated damages to be US$81.2 billion, making Katrina the costliest natural disaster in the country's history. Because of events like Katrina, and because of new identity and security requirements for incident management of disaster scenes, a federal agency turned to Verizon Business Security Solutions for help in acquiring an identity and credential verification solution. In response, Verizon Business created a comprehensive solution that combines a FIPS 201-compliant identification and credentialing system with privilege management.