HSPD-12 Site to Post Products Under Review Early

As federal agencies plug away to meet an October deadline for issuing interoperable identification cards to all employees and contractors with access to sensitive information, the General Services Administration (GSA) said it would post product specifications of components under review on its existing website to help select the equipment companies can use for mandate compliance, Government Computer News (GCN) reports.

The upgraded Web portal will also provide information on how vendors can submit their products for review and posting on an “early-approval list,” according to GCN.

As part of HSPD-12, federal agencies must have the systems in place to produce, issue and read the interoperable smart cards by Oct. 27, and those cards must comply with the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 201, Personal Identity Verification (PIV) I and II.  For more on HSPD-12, check out The Access Control Race.

Vendors must have products for HSPD-12 compliance approved by the GSA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) before they can be offered up for sale to agencies.

GSA planned on having approved products posted by the end of May, according to GCN, but it started posting approvals early so that agencies could get started on their product selections for HSPD-12, GCN reports.

The organization is expected to begin posting updates on how vendors can get their products on the early-approval list sometime next week, according to GCN.

April Giles of the GSA told GCN that vendors won’t have to pay to submit products, but they’ll have to be patient as the process is new and troubleshooting will be necessary.

According to GCN, NIST published its latest updates to FIPS 201 last week.

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