Athena Smartcard Solutions has announced that its Athena IDProtect Duo PIV, contact-contactless smart card has been approved by the US Government General Services Administration (GSA) for deployment in Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) programmes.

The announcement follows the product’s certification for FIPS 140-2 and FIPS 201 earlier this year, and the previous GSA approval of the firm’s IDProtect PIV Middleware in HSPD-12 deployments.

Athena says its IDProtect Duo PIV card incorporates the latest FIPS 201 requirements. It supports Java Card 2.2.2 specifications and can carry 72KB of data including certificates and biometric data supporting both logical and physical access applications.

The Athena PIV card uses Atmel’s AT90SC12872RCFT dual interface secure microcontroller which is Common Criteria EAL5+ certified, and is produced by US-based card manufacturer CPI.