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Are nonfederal entities--especially those not regularly interacting with federal agencies--finding value in following the standards defining FIPS-201 PIV-I and PIV-C credentials? Our latest interview on the topic was with Kevin Graebel (pictured), product line manager, HID credentials, HID Global, who dug into the query with us.

In this first half of our interview, edited for length and clarity, we talk about how the FIPS 201 standard mirrors best practices enterprises may already be employing and which card "edge" technologies compete with PIV and how those may influence its reach.

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Sharon J. Watson, Security Squared: I want to start with that real basic question: are enterprises not under any mandate to comply with FIPS-201 PIV-I or PIV-C credentials choosing to follow any portion of the standards laid out in FIPS-201 and why or why not?

Kevin Graebel, HID Global:  At its core, FIPS-201 is really just a set of best practices that have been adopted by the federal government. Those best practices have really been around for a long time in the physical access control industry. In fact, HID published a document in 2008, a white paper outlining what access control industry best standards are. There are a lot of good comparisons between the physical access control and logical access control best practices