More mandates

HSPD-12 also mandated that federal agencies establish processes for verifying the identities and backgrounds of all federal employees. That effort was completed last October as required by the directive.

The government's exploration of a shared infrastructure comes as federal agencies scramble to install by the October deadline required devices such as PIV-compliant card readers, biometric readers and physical access-control devices.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has created a set of conformance guidelines for vendors of smart cards and middleware technologies. NIST has also established test laboratories where vendors of smart-card technologies can get products certified for conformance with PIV standards, said Curt Barker, a NIST program manager.

So far, only two vendors have been issued compliance certificates, and several others are going through the process, he said.