Nist, Sia And Smart Card Alliance Talking Fips 201 Compliance

The forum, held on Dec. 13, saw members of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), authors of FIPS 201, panelists and attendees from the federal government, Smart Card Alliance and SIA on the current interpretations of specification documents relevant to FIPS 201. During the panel presentations, SIA representatives stressed the importance of establishing a migration strategy for legacy systems under the FIPS 201 guidelines, especially where it pertains to physical access control in government spaces. SIA also sought to obtain a timeline for compliance. UL Staff Engineer James Lesniak outlined the process for access control systems to receive the UL Security Mark, which can take six months or more to complete. Mark Visbal, director of research and technology with SIA, stressed the importance of communicating realistic timelines with regards to the government where it involves next- generation, FIPS 201-compliant access control systems. The Smart Card Alliance representatives encouraged NIST to establish a test data model so companies can build products and have them tested to assure that they do comply with FIPS 201. More than 120 industry and government stakeholders attended the event.