Smart Card
In response to the US Presidential Directive HSPD 12, the Computer Security Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated a new program to improve the identification and authentication of US Federal employees and contractors to access Federal facilities and information systems. As a result, NIST developed the standard "Personal Identity Verification (PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors," published as Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 201. The US Secretary of Commerce approved this standard and it was issued on February 25, 2005.
Since then, interest in applying the standard expanded to private enterprise and non-US government organizations resulting in an identity card that is interoperable or compatible with a standard identity system such as PIV. Recognizing this need, the US Federal Chief Information Officers Council (CIO) issued the "Personal Identity Verification Interoperability for Non-Federal Issuers" specification to describe PIV Interoperable (PIV-I) and PIV Compatible (PIV-C) cards. The Smart Card Alliance has initiated an effort to provide guidance for a Commercial Identification Verification (CIV) credential based on PIV-C but with security and policy features attuned to the needs of the private sector and other government agencies throughout the world.
Our PIV Cards are a standards-based smart card for Federal, state and local government, their contractors, private sector and non-federal organizations around the world that want to leverage the benefits of the PIV standard. The PIV Cards come in a variety of models that are fully compliant to the PIV standard approved by the US Government Services Administration (GSA) and meet the NATO requirements to meet their respective PKI policies. These cards have distinctive characteristics such as:
* passed independent and thorough certification and compliance testing processes achieving certification as FIPS 201 Compliant™, validation to FIPS 140-2 to Level 2 cryptographic module security, and approval by the GSA for the FIPS 201 Evaluation Program Approved Products List (APL). Approved by NATO and listed as meeting their PKI policies.
* available in dual-interface (contact/contactless), as mandated by the PIV standard, or optional tri-interface (Prox) for compatibility with legacy physical access systems
* multiple memory sizes
* extensible with custom applications
Our PIV Cards are complemented by a range of certified smart card readers and tested for interoperability by vendors providing a variety of PIV compatible solutions.