The common identification standard for all federal employees and contractors is the Personal Identity Verification (PIV) smart card, defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201.

The recognition of the need for homeland security, and the rapid growth of the security industry around that need, is based in part on recognition of the critical need to ensure that no individuals in a facility or campus ever have access to an area where they are not authorized to enter.

Since HSPD-12 was announced back in 2004, state and local government agencies as well major federal contractors have felt pressure to start incorporating FIPS-201 compliant cards and readers into their access control systems. Sometimes, these cards are called something else – for instance, they are referred to as CAC cards by the military.