Infoblox has announced that the Infoblox Trinzic family of automated network control systems now supports Common Access Card (CAC) and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) smart cards. This ensures that only approved IT professionals are authorised to access and perform changes on Infoblox systems. The two-factor authentication enabled by support for these cards is a compliance requirement for access to critical US Department of Defense (DOD) and other federal government agencies’ computer systems.

The company says its technology is currently installed at many US federal government agencies. To comply with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12), they are under mounting pressure to install added security mechanisms for their computer networks. Infoblox says it now offers these agencies and other customers an added level of security with built-in support for CAC and PIV smart cards that facilitate the use of PKI authentication tools and establish an authoritative process for the use of identity credentials.

It adds: “Without embedded support for CAC or other smart cards, administrators of networks that require two-factor authentication must create custom scripts, resulting in costs for software development and on-going maintenance.”

Kevin Dickson, the company’s vice president of product management, says: “Infoblox is pleased to be the only provider of essential DNS, DHCP and IPAM platforms to support CAC and PIV cards ‘out of the box’; this underscores the company’s commitment to meet its customers’ requirements, help maintain network integrity and 24x7 availability, and reduce complexity and costs.”