Smart Card Alliance Report Helps Government Agencies Deploy New System

Next month, government agencies face the deadline to begin issuing a single smart card credential to all government employees and contractors for both physical and logical access. In order to aid organizations with the physical access control system (PACS) aspect of the implementation, the Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council released a new white paper today, Considerations for the Migration of Existing Physical Access Control Systems to Achieve FIPS 201 Compatibility. Additional Smart Card Alliance educational resources that support FIPS 201 implementation will soon be announced.

This standard has far-reaching effects on federal agencies in providing specifications that govern the entire chain of trust of the identity system and in specifying a single smart card - the PIV card - to be used for both physical and logical access, as well as other applications as determined by the individual agencies.


The white paper is designed to assist government agencies with the first phases of PACS migration to provide support for the new PIV cards that are being issued. It focuses on the current security environment for physical access and, through a series of questions, makes recommendations for how agencies can migrate and upgrade their current PACS to align them with the requirements of HSPD-12 and FIPS 201. Some of the questions the white paper addresses include:

• What happens when some employees have PIV cards and some do not?
• How can the existing PACS accommodate the migration to FIPS 201compatibility?
• Can systems be upgraded or must new systems be acquired?
• What security considerations are there?

"Smart cards and readers are just the tip of the iceberg in FIPS 201 deployments. Government agencies need to consider new enrollment and issuance systems, as well as PACS changes and integration with back-end authentication systems," said Lars Suneborn, director, government programs, Hirsch Electronics and Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council lead for the project. "The tools in this white paper help agencies to develop a solid foundation for their migration plans."

The report was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Physical Access Council. Participants from 18 organizations were involved in the development of the report, including: Actcom Security Solutions, a Diebold Company; BearingPoint; Booz Allen Hamilton; CoreStreet; Fargo Electronics; HID Corporation; Hirsch Electronics; Honeywell; Identification Technology Partners; Integrated Engineering; LEGIC Identsystems; LENEL, a UTC Fire & Security Company; Northrop Grumman; Saflink; SCM Microsystems; U.S. Department of Defense/Defense Manpower Data Center; U.S. Department of State.

Considerations for the Migration of Existing Physical Access Control Systems to Achieve FIPS 201 Compatibility is available at no charge from the Smart Card Alliance web site at www.smartcardalliance.org.