PIV Card/Reader Challenges with Physical Access Control Systems: A Field Troubleshooting Guide

Publication Date: October 2012

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The Smart Card Alliance Access Control and Identity Councils have assembled and documented reported usage difficulties and symptoms of Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card and contactless reader failures with physical access control systems (PACS) from field installations. This document categorizes observed symptoms, lists some probable causes, and suggests corrective actions as well as some basic troubleshooting techniques that may easily be performed on site. The guide is intended to help users diagnose the cause of the different issues and quickly identify corrective actions. The goals of the recommended procedures are to minimize interruption of daily operations and reduce the need to replace system components such as cards and/or readers.

Guidance included in this document was submitted by manufacturers of cards, readers, and PACS; system integrators; installation companies; and government credential issuers.

About this Publication

This guidance document was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Access Control Council and Identity Council to help users diagnose the cause of the PIV card/reader issues with physical access control systems and provide troubleshooting guidance to quickly identify corrective actions.

Smart Card Alliance council members involved in the development of this white paper included: 3M Cogent, Inc.; AMAG Technology; Booz Allen Hamilton; Codebench, Inc.; CSC; Damalas LLC; Datacard Group; Deloitte & Touche LLP; Eid Passport; Exponent, Inc.; Gemalto; Giesecke & Devrient; GSA; HID Global; HP Enterprise Services; IDenticard Systems Inc.; Identification Technology Partners; Identive; IDmachines; IQ Devices; LaChelle LeVan; Marty Frary; NASA; NXP Semiconductors; Oberthur Technologies; Quantum Secure Inc.; RM Industries; Roehr Consulting; SafeNet, Inc.; SAIC; Secure Mission Systems; SHAZAM; Software House/Tyco; U.S. Department of Defense/Defense Manpower Data Center; U.S. Department of State; XTec, Inc..

About the Smart Card Alliance Access Control Council

The Smart Card Alliance Access Control Council is focused on accelerating the widespread acceptance, use, and application of smart card technology for physical and logical access control. The group brings together, in an open forum, leading users and technologists from both the public and private sectors and works on activities that are important to the access control community and that will help expand smart card technology adoption in this important market.

About the Smart Card Alliance Identity Council

The Identity Council is focused on promoting best policies and practices concerning person and machine identity, including strong authentication and the appropriate authorization across different use cases. Through its activities the Council encourages the use of digital identities that provide strong authentication across assurance environments through smart credentials–e.g., smart ID cards, mobile devices, enhanced driver’s licenses, and other tokens. The Council furthermore encourages the use of smart credentials, secure network protocols and cryptographic standards in support of digital identities and strong authentication on the Internet.

The Council addresses the challenges of securing identity and develops guidance for organizations so that they can realize the benefits that secure identity delivers. The Council engages a broad set of participants and takes an industry perspective, bringing careful thought, joint planning, and multiple organization resources to bear on addressing the challenges of securing identity information for proper use.

Additional information on the use of smart card technology for identity and access control applications can be found on the Smart Card Alliance web site at https://www.securetechalliance.org.