Identifying emergency personnel

Emergency response personnel operate in hectic and confusing conditions: They run into burning building or flooded towns, descend into an underground tunnels in which terrorists have just exploded a bomb, and more. One thing emergency response officials (EROs) need, then, is to be able to identify themselves to each other in an emergency. This is especially the case in large disasters, in which the emergency personnel involved may well involve rescue teams from different jurisdictions. What they all need are secure credentials which are electronically verifiable, and trusted across multiple jurisdictions. The Smart Card Alliance Identity Council said in a white paper released the other day that smart card identity credentials based on Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201) meet these requirements, and take advantage of the enhanced ID infrastructure federal, state, and commercial organizations have already put in place.

The white paper, “Emergency Response Official Credentials: An Approach to Attain Trust in Credentials across Multiple Jurisdictions for Disaster Response and Recovery,” identifies best practices and defines use cases for ERO credentials based on the FIPS 201 standard, and outlines how these credentials can meet identity goals of trust, privacy, interoperability, and usability. The paper also describes recent demonstrations and pilots of the First Responder Authentication Credential (FRAC) that have involved emergency response officials in the National Capital Region, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, Illinois, Florida, and Colorado. The white paper is available to download on the Smart Card Alliance Web site.

“FIPS 201 smart card-based credentials, already mandated and being implemented across U.S. federal government organizations, provide a fast, secure electronic identity validation process and work in all environmental conditions — even when power or communication capabilities are not available,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “This white paper outlines how the emergency response community can leverage this secure identity platform and apply added first responder attributes to make trusted credentials part of the system. This white paper is an ideal resource for all organizations in the emergency response community, especially those that are now reviewing their identity, access, and credentialing requirements.”

The white paper was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Identity Council and Physical Access Council.