PIV-I and Multifactor Authentication: Federal Government Contractors' Best Defense

In response to an unprecedented level of espionage and cyber-attacks aimed at compromising critical government IT infrastructure—from networks to applications—the federal government last year announced new standards. Regulations have been enacted in 2016 to apply these standards to federal contractors and their subcontractors. Beginning with DoD, which has given contractors until Dec. 31, 2017, to comply with NIST SP 800-171, the federal government no longer will allow simply a user¬name and password to authenticate an individual’s identity. This whitepaper examines the benefits of PIV-I credentialing, which represents a flexible, cost-effective and future-proofed method to achieve one of the most critical aspects of NIST SP 800-171 compliance.