ActivIdentity Corp., a provider of in strong authentication and credential management, announced that it has launched a PIV-Interoperable initiative to enable non-federal organizations to issue employee identity cards that are technically interoperable with U.S. government PIV systems, and issued in a manner that allows government and relying parties to trust the cards.

To address the newly defined PIV-I card standards, ActivIdentity has modified its ActivID Card Management System that is being used in conjunction with its ActivClient security software. Customers looking to deploy the ActivIdentity PIV-I credential management solution can also leverage the ActivIdentity PIV+ applet that enables PKI-based access control as well as one-time-password-based authentication on a single PIV-interoperable identity card. The ActivIdentity PIV+ applet together with the ActivID Card Management System and ActivClient are part of the government-approved product list.

As the PIV initiative progresses, PIV-I has become a requirement for commercial enterprises that interact with government agencies on a daily basis. Non-federal issuers of credentials need to produce employee IDs that can technically interoperate with government PIV systems and can be trusted by relying parties via cross-certification. However, the PIV card standard is limited in scope to the federal government and has several requirements that can be addressed only by that community.

In response to these interoperability requirements, the Federal CIO Council defined the standards for PIV-I cards for non-federal issuers. Several federally sponsored PIV-I programs already exist, including the First Responder Authentication Credential (FRAC), the Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC), and the Airport Credential Interoperability Solution (ACIS). Many other programs are in development with the same desired goal of technical interoperability and trustworthiness in the Federal government PIV environment.