All employees of this government agency carry a Personal Identification Verification smart card — or PIV for short — to log into computers and get into agency facilities, according to a pilot fish on the scene.

“On Thursday at 3 p.m., an agency-wide email about PIV cards was broadcast,” fish says.

It reads: If you were issued a PIV card after March 15, 2013, you will need to update the certificates (the electronic data elements on your card that allow you to gain access to data systems) on your card at your earliest opportunity, and do so on a regular basis, thereafter.

Even though your PIV card MAY PHYSICALLY show a five-year expiration date, the electronic certificates on the card expire after three years. You can update your certificates by going to any PIV light activation station and running the MAINTENANCE function on your card. This will update your certificates and, in effect, extend the certificates’ validity for another three years.

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