LEO roars into the future: SmartPass software no longer required

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, Sept, 2006 by Lesley G. Koestner

Users asked for it, and LEO has delivered. Law Enforcement Online (LEO) will implement a new authentication method. With an end-to-end encrypted tunnel, the SSL System enables, controls, and secures the extended enterprise with innovative identity-driven access gateways.

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The SSL System

To provide anytime, anywhere secure information sharing among law enforcement officials, LEO will migrate its users to a clientless virtual private network (VPN) solution. The existing VPN solution requires V-ONE SmartPass or client software installed on end-users' systems. Client software poses a number of issues for the end users that ultimately prevents them from accessing the network. As a remedy, LEO has created the SSL Solution to help those law enforcement entities that have encountered difficulties due to VPN SmartPass conflicts.

LEO--a global, virtual, and private network provided by the FBI to all levels of the law enforcement, criminal justice, and public safety communities--is an anytime, anywhere system for secure dissemination of sensitive but unclassified (SBU) information. (1) LEO provides its members a free, state-of-the-practice, secure, Internet-based communications network. Accordingly, members use LEO to support investigative operations, send notifications and alerts, and remotely access a wide variety of law enforcement and intelligence systems and resources.

Continued enhancements to LEO improve the functionalities of the system's tools and provide the most advanced services and applications to its members. LEO maintains a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week help desk to assist with membership needs. Such customer-oriented service, combined with state-of-the-practice technologies, helps fulfill the FBI's mission to provide immediate dissemination of SBU information across agency boundaries.

Membership Requirements

LEO is limited to persons duly employed by a law enforcement, criminal justice, or public safety organization and whose position requires secure communication with other agencies. (2) As an information-sharing forum, LEO encourages all members to contribute information in their area of expertise. To request a membership application or obtain additional information, contact the LEO Program Office at 202-324-8833, 202-324-3364 (fax), or leoprogramoffice@leo.gov.

Endnotes

(1) For additional information about LEO and the services it offers, see Lesley G. Koestner, "Law Enforcement Online: Facing the Challenges of Katrina," FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, February 2006, 1-6.

(2) The LEO Program Office must be notified immediately upon separation of a member from an agency.

Special Agent Koestner serves in the LEO Operations Unit, Law Enforcement Services Development and Liaison Branch, of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia.