# PIV and CAC **Aliases:** Personal Identity Verification; Common Access Card; PIV; CAC **Entity class:** Federal identity credentials ## Definition **Personal Identity Verification (PIV)** credentials provide a government-wide standard for identity proofing and secure physical and logical access. The **Common Access Card (CAC)** is DoD's smart-card credential. Both can carry PKI certificates used for authentication, digital signatures, and encryption. Shared certificate and trust infrastructure can make PIV and CAC credentials interoperable with relying systems, but possessing a credential does not itself confer clearance, need-to-know, a system role, or statutory authority. ## Relationships - **standard:** NIST FIPS 201-3. - **trust infrastructure:** [[wiki/Federal Public Key Infrastructure|Federal PKI]]. - **supports:** [[wiki/Identity Assurance|Identity Assurance]], [[wiki/Operational Onboarding|Operational Onboarding]], and [[wiki/SF 312|SF 312]] signatures. ## Sources / Provenance - [NIST — FIPS 201-3](https://pages.nist.gov/FIPS201/FIPS201.html) - [GSA — Federal Workforce Identity Services](https://www.idmanagement.gov/trust-services/)