The trustmark framework has been implemented in both demonstration and operational environments to validate its ability to support scalable, verifiable trust management across digital ecosystems. While the implementations described here were focused on supporting digital trust within the public safety community — particularly around Federated Identity, Credential, and Access Management (Federated ICAM) and trusted information sharing — the trustmark framework is fundamentally general-purpose. It can be applied to manage trust in any digital ecosystem where scalable, flexible, and verifiable trust relationships are needed.
Two major implementation efforts helped demonstrate the flexibility and value of the trustmark framework. The first was a demonstration testbed at the Interop22 event in College Station, Texas, focused on integrating trustmarks into a federated identity environment. The second was a live operational pilot in Texas involving real agencies, real users, and real information sharing systems, validating the framework’s scalability in production environments.
Interop22 Federated ICAM and Trustmarks Testbed Demo
Overview
In May 2022, a live demonstration of the trustmark framework and Federated ICAM concepts was conducted at the Interop22 event in College Station, Texas. Hosted in partnership with Texas A&M University’s Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center (ITEC), the demonstration showcased a federated identity testbed environment leveraging the trustmark framework to manage dynamic trust relationships among users and applications. The testbed featured a network of Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)–based Identity Providers (IDPs) and Service Providers (SPs) supporting both WebAuthn and Personal Identity Verification–Interoperable (PIV-I) authentication methods.
Capabilities Demonstrated
The demonstration included smartphone-based multi-factor authentication via WebAuthn integrated with SAML-based Single Sign-On (SSO), as well as authentication using PIV-I smartcard credentials. Three testbed applications were configured to accept federated authentication, enabling seamless user access. Trustmark framework tools were integrated into the environment, including mock deployments of the Trust Policy Authoring Tool (TPAT), Trustmark Assessment Tool (TAT), Trustmark Binding Registry (TBR), and Trustmark Relying Party Tool (TRPT). Participants issued mock trustmarks, bound trustmarks to organizational records, and made trust decisions based on these structured assertions.
Outcomes
The Interop22 demonstration successfully proved that trustmarks could validate and automate trust decisions in a federated identity environment. It showed how the combination of federated authentication and structured trustmark assurance can enhance both user experience and administrative control in digital ecosystems, paving the way for more agile and transparent trust management practices.
Texas Federated ICAM and Trustmark Tools Pilot
Overview
In 2021, a live operational pilot was conducted under the National Identity Exchange Federation (NIEF) infrastructure, extending the trustmark framework into a real-world environment involving active agencies, real users, and live systems. The pilot focused on supporting trusted information sharing in the public safety sector, leveraging Federated ICAM principles, trustmarks, and associated software tools.
Participating Agencies
Participants in the pilot included the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) serving as an IDP and SP for the TXMAP and DPS TAK systems; Nlets serving as an SP for the ORION information lookup platform; the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) operating as an IDP; the Foundation for Trusted Identity (FTI) issuing PIV-I credentials as an IDP; and Mobility 4 Public Safety (M4PS) serving as an SP for the Bridge2PS platform. Each participant deployed SAML-based IDP/SP components alongside trustmark framework tools, including the TPAT, TAT, and TRPT. NIEF operated a shared trustmark infrastructure (TPAT, TAT, and TBR) to support the overall ecosystem.
Trustmark Activities
Participants used their TAT instances to conduct trustmark self-assessments against published criteria. In addition, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), acting through NIEF, performed third-party reviews and issued validated trustmarks. Approximately 1,700 trustmarks were issued during the pilot, establishing bidirectional trust relationships among the participants and supporting dynamic validation of operational trust.
Lessons Learned
The Texas operational pilot provided several important insights. First, the trustmark framework met the operational needs of participants by delivering the promised agility, scalability, and rigor required for managing digital trust. Second, trust relationships could be established dynamically and verifiably, without reliance on static, pre-negotiated agreements, by using structured trustmark artifacts. Third, participants found that the broader adoption of trustmark-based trust management is closely tied to the expansion of Federated ICAM principles, highlighting the natural synergy between identity federation and trust assurance through trustmarks.
Outcomes
The Texas pilot demonstrated that the trustmark framework could be successfully deployed to manage real-world digital trust decisions. It validated the scalability and robustness of the trustmark tools and confirmed that trust decisions, traditionally handled through static agreements, could instead be based on dynamic, verifiable trustmark assertions embedded within a federated digital trust architecture.
Conclusion
The Interop22 demonstration and the Texas operational pilot both confirmed that the trustmark framework can significantly improve how digital ecosystems manage trust. Although these early efforts focused on public safety and Federated ICAM use cases, the underlying concepts are broadly applicable to any domain requiring scalable, verifiable, and flexible trust relationships. These trustmark implementation efforts demonstrated that trustmarks enhance transparency, agility, and auditability of trust decisions, paving the way for more resilient, interoperable, and adaptable digital ecosystems.