An example diagram of a Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card issued by various United States government agencies. Not all fields are used by all agencies.
In response to HSPD-12, the NIST Computer Security Division initiated a new program for improving the identification and authentication of Federal employees and contractors to access Federal facilities and information systems. FIPS 201 was developed to satisfy the technical requirements of HSPD-12, approved by the Secretary of Commerce, and issued on February 25, 2005.
This Standard specifies the architecture and technical requirements for a common identification standard for Federal employees and contractors.[1] FIPS 201 specifies that an identity credential must be stored on a smart card. SP 800-73, a NIST special publication, contains the technical specifications to interface with the smart card to retrieve and use the PIV identity credentials.[2]
FIPS 201 was replaced by FIPS 201-2[3] on September 5, 2013,[4] and by FIPS 201-3 in January 2022.[5]
Deputy Secretary of the Interior P. Lynn Scarlett demonstrating a PIV card in 2006
