Why FIPS 201 matters to corporate security

Sep 1, 2006 12:00 PM, LARRY ANDERSON, EDITOR

A deadline looms next month related to HSPD-12 and FIPS 201 and the federal government. For anyone who speaks a language other than Alphanumeric, these initiatives have to do with establishing a “common identification standard” for federal employees and contractors. The FIPS 201 standard describes the process for verifying an individual government employee's identity (biometrics) and the technical requirements for a smart card or other credential.

Corporate security directors should be paying attention to what is happening at the federal level because it will impact them in huge ways in the coming years.

The federal government is helping to create something that has been a struggle during the march of technology in the private sector — a critical mass of smart card applications that combine principles of identity management with issues of physical security and protection of computers and information.

Private-sector economics have served our industry well over the years, but in this case there is a chicken-or-egg question: How can an infrastructure of smart card applications be created unless or until there is a critical mass of smart cards? And how can a critical mass of smart cards be created until there is an infrastructure of applications in place?

The government market can break out of the chicken-or-egg conundrum by way of a mandate (such as the Presidential Directive HSPD-12). A mandate for government agencies creates an additional impetus for technology implementation that is missing in the private sector. Dollars and cents (a.k.a., return on investment) drive the private sector. Corporate people want their technologies tried-and-true and battle-tested. But government has different rules.

What we hear is that the technologies and developments that are going into the HSPD-12 and FIPS 201 initiatives will — sooner rather than later — migrate to the private sector.

So as our friends in the government security arena struggle to use FIPS 201 standards — to meet the mandate — they are also laying the groundwork for the corporate world to adopt the same technologies down the road.

Government standards will likely become de facto standards for the corporate world, too, and then the true benefits of smart cards will be available to all.

YOUR THOUGHTS

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