Security firm Entrust has announced plans to launch a managed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) service targeting businesses and government agencies.

The offering is set to be operational in the second quarter of 2006, and will meet US Federal Common policy and standards requirements.

Entrust Managed PKI Service will offer management functions including high availability, disaster recovery, automated failover and network protection.

Additional benefits include intrusion protection, antivirus and archival for Certification Authority services, and denial of service protection.

The service will also be able to help federal agencies meet HSPD-12 requirements, a directive issued by President Bush in 2004 intended to strengthen executive branch security by standardising employee and contractor access to federal facilities and information systems.

"With renewed interest in PKI, driven primarily by enterprise and government initiatives such as HSPD-12, having a choice of best-of-breed vendors is critical," said Allan Carey, programme manager for security services research at IDC.

Entrust said in a statement: "In addition to the federal marketplace, Entrust Managed PKI Service will be of particular interest to commercial companies and state agencies that need stronger security with the enabling characteristics of PKI, but do not want to incur the costs of building and maintaining an infrastructure to support it."