Cultural obstacles can be as much of a problem as the technical issues with HSPD-12 initiatives, according to Judith Spencer, the chair of the Federal Identity Credentialing Committee with the General Services Administration. “We have to use this card in a way that exercises its capabilities,” she said during a Web conference Wednesday. “We have […]

ImageWare Systems Inc. received Minutiae Interoperability Exchange Certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. MINEX evaluates the capabilities of fingerprint minutia matchers running on smart cards. San Diego-based Imageware Systems’ IWS Biometric Engine is the product that passed the test. The certification supports the company’s efforts to provide Personal Identity Verification solutions in […]

Fulcrum Biometrics, San Antonio, is reselling the FIPS 201-certified fingerprint scanner from South Korea-based Nitgen Co Ltd. The Nitgen eNBioScan-F scanner offers a 1.2 inch fingerprint input screen to acquire fingerprint information. The scanner is available with a USB 2.0 connection and drivers for Microsoft Windows operating systems. The scanner can be ordered online from […]

The January monthly meeting of the influential Government Smart Card Interagency Advisory Board (IAB) was held in Washington D.C. FIPS201.com was on hand to cover the event and has provided, as a service to the IAB and the smart card community, an audio recording of the presentations. Click on the link below to access a […]

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last week extended an injunction against NASA that temporarily prevents it from requiring certain contractors to submit to a new background-check process as part of a mandatory smart-card credentialing program. The Ninth Circuit noted that the background check process raised serious privacy issues and was far too […]

Chase Corporation’s new contactless shielding product, Paper Tyger® DEFENDER™, is quickly gaining widespread acceptance, according to the manufacturer. DEFENDER provides personal and mail-stream privacy protection by shielding smart cards and RFID-enabled credentials from unauthorized access. The DEFENDER shield is said to be facilitating the growth of contactless cards across the globe in many different industries. […]

Raritan recently announced that its Paragon II enterprise-class KVM solution, said to be the industry’s first to be offered with an optional integrated smart-card-reader, has achieved approval under FIPS 201 – the U.S. Federal government’s important standard that specifies Personal Identity Verification (PIV) requirements for Federal employees and contractors. The FIPS 201 approval has been […]

Deborah Gallagher, former chief technology officer at the Defense Department’s Access Card Office, has moved to the Homeland Security Department to help implement Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12. Gallagher played a key role in DOD’s Common Access Card program. To date, DHS has made little progress toward complying with HSPD-12, according to the IDManagement.gov Web […]

Consuelo Bangs, Senior Program Manager Access Control Solutions, Sagem Morpho, Inc. Match-on-Card (MOC) with secure messaging (SBMOC) has the potential to become part of the Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS201) and may prove useful for the maritime Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC) program. MOC is the process of sending a biometric template from a […]

If you don’t need a full-blown, FIPS 201-compliant PIV card like those being tested in Summer Breeze-like trials, the recently established Tiers of Trust Consortium may have an alternative solution. It was created to provide a lower cost smart ID card without all the bells and whistles that FIPS 201 requires. “While this regulation (FIPS […]