Smart Card Alliance Adds New Certification Program

  • May 10, 2010

The Smart Card Alliance recently announced an additional smart card certification program for government identity and security professionals, the Certified Smart Card Industry Professional/Government (CSCIP/G) designation. The Alliance also announced its first two CSCIP/G exams, which will be held on June 29 and November 19 in Washington, D.C.

“The use of smart card technology has become a mainstay in the U.S. federal government, securing identities in programs like the FIPS 201 PIV card for all government employees, the DoD’s Common Access Card, the Transportation Worker Identification Credential and the First Responder Authentication Credential,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “We recognized that there is a pressing need for more detailed training about the government smart card market than the present CSCIP program provided. In response, we developed this intensive curriculum to train government professionals, contractors and security industry experts on the role of smart cards in future rollouts of the government standards for identity management and security technology.”

Part of the Alliance’s Leadership, Education and Advancement Program (LEAP), CSCIP/G is an extension of the Certified Smart Card Industry Professional (CSCIP) designation. The body of industry knowledge covered by the CSCIP/G certification includes the same fundamentals as the CSCIP certification, and adds in-depth content about U.S. government identity credentialing programs and technologies.

Leading smart card industry professionals have developed the series of educational modules forming the CSCIP/G certification body of knowledge. These educational modules prepare applicants for the CSCIP/G exam administered by the Smart Card Alliance. The CSCIP/G certification exam will cover:

  • Smart card fundamentals.
  • Smart card security features.
  • Smart card application and data management.
  • Smart card usage models.
  • FIPS 201 and common identity, security and privacy requirements.
  • PIV card, physical attributes, data elements, logical credentials and cryptographic specifications.
  • PIV card issuance and lifecycle.
  • FIPS 201 and biometrics.
  • Assurance levels.
  • Use cases for physical and logical access.
  • Federal PKI infrastructure.

Information about the CSCIP/G training materials is now available on the Smart Card Alliance Web site. Instructor-led training courses will be held in Washington, D.C. on June 28 and November 16 prior to the CSCIP/G. For more information, visit the Smart Card Alliance LEAP Web site at http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/activities-leap.

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