**GAO-06-178**                      Published: Feb 01, 2006. Publicly Released: Mar 03, 2006.                  

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## Highlights

Many forms of identification (ID) that federal employees and contractors use to access government-controlled buildings and information systems can be easily forged, stolen, or altered to allow unauthorized access. In an effort to increase the quality and security of federal ID and credentialing practices, the President directed the establishment of a governmentwide standard--Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201--for secure and reliable forms of ID based on "smart cards" that use integrated circuit chips to store and process data with a variety of external systems across government. GAO was asked to determine (1) actions that selected federal agencies have taken to implement the new standard and (2) challenges that federal agencies are facing in implementing the standard.

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## Topics

Government Operations

AuthorizationFacility securityFederal agenciesFederal Information Processing StandardsIdentification cardsIdentity verificationInteroperabilityProgram evaluationSmart cardsPersonal identity verification