When the White House issued policy in 2004 under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 requiring agencies to issue standardized personal identification cards to federal employees and contractors, it did so in the expectation that the cards would be used to access both federal facilities and federal computers.

Now, 6 years later, agencies say challenges to using the cards for logical access can be manifold.

In a report issued Sept. 20 by the Government Accountability Office, NASA officials note, for example, that the card standard doesn't work with Apple Mac workstations or mobile devices, devices that many of its employees utilize to carry out work responsibilities.

National Regulatory Commission and Agriculture Department officials said that Office of Management and Budget policy mandating that a workstation lock up after removal of identity cards would make work requiring the simultaneous use of multiple computers impossible--a problem particularly prevalent in laboratory settings.

Officials from NASA, USDA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development told auditors they've deployed software and hardware to enable identity-card access to federal computers, but that they continue to permit authentication and password logons. In part, that's because the issue of accommodating personnel without cards is a major obstacle. Short term employees and guest researchers might never be issued a card but still need computer access, and permanent staff with a card might find their card has been damaged to the point of interoperability--or merely have left it elsewhere, the report notes.

Other agency officials--from the departments of Commerce, Homeland Security and Interior--told auditors that HSPD-12 logical access hasn't been a priority, in part because they simply lack money to do it.

Agency officials also told auditors that issuing cards to all employees has been difficult, particularly for those agencies that have far-flung agents in the field. Specifically, officials from DHS, Interior and the Labor Department said the limited number of credentialing centers and the travel costs to access those centers has been a logistical challenge.

When it comes to using the cards for physical access to federal facilities, officials from Commerce, DHS and Interior said they have not yet developed specific plans for fully implementing card-enabled access throughout their departments. Officials from HUD, Labor and USDA said they have plans, but not enough money to have implemented them by now.

For more:
- download the report, GAO-11-751 (.pdf)

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