Many HSPD-12 Cards Fail GSA Testing

Via GCN.com -

A majority of the identification cards agencies issued to meet Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 fell short of complying with the federal standard and must be retested.

Industry and government officials confirmed that most cards issued in October had an assortment of problems—some of them major, such as a lack of interoperability, and some minor, such as using the wrong shade of blue on the card.

“There were over 100 tests the General Services Administration performed, but the most important one was for basic interoperability,” said one department official close to the HSPD-12 process, who requested anonymity.

“We knew we wouldn’t pass because we have our own testing tool and we were having specific issues [other than interoperability]. But we didn’t necessarily fail because, to me, [failing] means they weren’t interoperable, and they were.”

The official said many of that agency’s problems were due to not meeting the standard’s “persnickety” requirements. GSA has been testing since January.

As cards fell short of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Federal Information Processing Standard-201, the Office of Management and Budget asked agencies to resubmit cards for further analysis. GSA is testing the electronic personalization of the cards, which includes the encoding of the Personal Identity Verification data model on the integrated circuit chip. This will ensure an electronic exchange of data occurs between reader and card.

It also will look at the data objects on the cards, such as demographic data, fingerprint templates, facial data and the card holders’ unique identifiers, David Temoshok, GSA’s director of identity policy and management in the Office of Governmentwide Policy, said at a recent event on Capitol Hill.