Agencies now have a colleague they can turn to for manufacturing their employee credential cards. The Government Printing Office, a federal agency, announced on Tuesday that the Obama administration has certified GPO to personalize identification cards for departments governmentwide.
For years, outside vendors, such as VeriSign and Oberthur Technologies, have provided federal employees and agency contractors with smart cards for accessing government buildings and computer networks. The ID cards are required to comply with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, which the George W. Bush administration issued after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The printing office now becomes the first government agency authorized to embed cardholders' pictures and biographical data into the credentials, according to GPO officials.
"GPO's expertise and reputation for producing the most secure credentials in the federal government has led to this achievement," said Steve LeBlanc, the agency's managing director for security and intelligent documents.
Aliya Sternstein
Aliya Sternstein reports on cybersecurity and homeland security systems for Nextgov. She has covered technology for nine years at such publications as National Journal's TechnologyDaily, Federal Computer Week and Forbes. Before joining Government Executive, she covered agriculture and derivatives trading for Congressional Quarterly. She has been a guest commentator on C-SPAN, WTOP and Federal News Radio. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
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