Viscount Systems, Burnaby, British Columbia, said it received U.S. Government FIPS 201 certification for its new Freedom VeriCert software from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). Freedom VeriCert is now listed on the FIPS 201 GSA Approved Products List (APL) under the caching status proxy category, making it simpler for U.S. agencies to deploy Freedom technology and making it easier for Viscount to sell to U.S. government agencies.

Caching status proxy software has the capability to poll the status of all registered PIV (Personal Identity Verification) federal employee ID cards periodically and cache the status responses from their issuer(s), without third-party software. Caching status proxies are useful in scenarios that require extremely quick query-responses for certificate revocation status information or when physical access control systems need to cache certificate revocation information so as to be able to make an access control decision when online certificate validation is not possible. The Freedom VeriCert listing can be found at http://www.idmanagement.gov.

Freedom Encryption Bridge allows entry devices (ID cards, RFID readers, biometrics, etc.) to be connected to, and controlled by, standard building IT networks without requiring control panels. This eliminates up to 80 percent of the cost of traditional access control systems, Viscount stated. Freedom also utilizes existing IT permission databases (Microsoft Active Directory or LDAP) to replace the software component of traditional systems.