The Defense Department is modifying common access cards into personnel identity verification cards designed to help validate the identity of cardholders, Federal News Radio reported Friday.
Andy Seymour, DoD’s public key infrastructure manager, told Federal News Radio that DoD is about to issue directives that will give the services 18 months to unlock the PIV authentication certificate on CACs and begin using the new certificate for access.
“Our goal really is for joint interoperability across the entire government space, and not just DoD,” said Seymour.
He added that DoD also aims to optimize the security of contactless communication between CACs and the system as well as add encrypted certificates that will let users execute “tap-and-go” authentication.
Seymour noted that DoD is looking into various options to evolve CACs, including the use of multi-factor authentication tools and identity federation services.
