Recently, many agencies have seen cardholders make appointments at dedicated centers that do not serve their agency. Please ensure that cardholders know they may make an appointment at a dedicated center for their respective agency or a shared center.

Please also be mindful that shared centers carry the burden of serving many agencies and may have appointment slots fill up more quickly. If distance isn’t a significant factor and an agency-dedicated center is available, please give preference to the dedicated center.

Changes/updates since last Blue Top

• August 18-19 (Rescheduled from July): USAccess Software Release 13.0.5 was completed as scheduled. Please see the release notice posted on the Agency Lead Portal for more information on contents of this release.

Changes/updates since last Blue Top

Based on feedback received during our Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meeting on July 17, USAccess Software Release 13.0.5 is now scheduled for the weekend of August 18-19. The release is being pushed out to provide Agencies with more time to download and test the new LA v4.5 and MCU v1.4 installers before distributing them to the field.

Release 13.0.5 Details

An email was sent to agency leads and SIP contacts on August 2 regarding the discontinued support for the TLS 1.0 protocol. For customers who use our System Infrastructure Provider (SIP) interface, there is potential that there will be a service disruption if your agency systems are still using TLS 1.0 to establish secure connections on this interface. Agency Leads, please respond to the email from August 2 as soon as possible with the requested information about the system your agency operates to communicate with the SIP interface.

As a result of the GSA security requirement to remove the use of TLS 1.0 from the USAccess infrastructure, any workstation that connects to the USAccess service to complete enrollments or activations will need a registry update to disable TLS 1.0 in the workstation’s configuration as well as add TLS 1.1/1.2 support to the CCM libraries. This impacts all fixed Credentialing Units (FCUs), legacy fixed enrollment/activation workstations, Mobile Credentialing Units (MCUs), as well as Light Activation (LA) and Light Credentialing Solution (LCS) kits.

A one-page informational flyer describing the USAccess Personal Identity Verification – Interoperable (PIV-I) credential has been created for agencies to display at credentialing centers. The flyer includes information on the PIV-I credential, who receives the credential, and the enrollment process. It was distributed to Agency Leads via email on June 29 and is posted on the Agency Lead Portal.

For agencies receiving Fixed Credentialing Units as part of the USAccess transition process, please remember to schedule your Certification Call with a Perspecta (formerly DXC) engineer as soon as possible. These calls are required for the Fixed CU to become operational and should occur immediately after the equipment has been set up.

Agency Site POCs are strongly encouraged to schedule these calls as soon as the equipment is received for maximum scheduling flexibility.

As part of the transition from RNG-based (Idemia V7) to DRBG-based (V8.1) PIV cards, please send completed test card form orders to: Jim Schoening. Agencies that have already ordered will be provided these cards in August.

Please email Lalit Bajaj with any questions.

Changes/updates since last Blue Top