That eliminates the need for employees working with contractors to have unique digital credentials for each agency or project they are associated with, said Jeff Nigriny, president and CTO of CertiPath. Instead, a single identity credential can be trusted by partners, suppliers and customers within several government agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security, Treasury and State, Nigriny said.

The CertiPath bridge will give commercial contractors an alternative to the current system, which requires them to acquire digital identity credentials from approved External Certificate Authorities for all employees doing business electronically with the government. As a result, the bridge gives companies and federal agencies a more cost-effective, scalable and reliable way to do business at a time when more government services are becoming available online, Alterman said.

Six leading companies are charter members of CertiPath: The Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and EADS/Airbus.

Boeing earlier this month became the first company to be cross-certified under CertiPath.

"Cross-certification with the CertiPath Bridge is a major step in both facilitating and securing communications between Boeing and our many customers and suppliers," Janet Marott, director of information protection and assurance at Boeing said in a statement. "We view this capability as absolutely critical because it establishes verifiable chains of trust through CertiPath without causing Boeing to have to verify trust with each and every business partner, she said.