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News | April 22, 2020

Agency employees encouraged to update ID credentials

By DLA Public Affairs DLA Public Affairs

With stay-at-home mandates limiting people from physically entering Defense Logistics Agency facilities, employees should be mindful of renewal dates on Defense Department-issued identification cards like common access cards.

Pass and ID offices throughout DOD have limited their hours or closed altogether due to the coronavirus pandemic, making it difficult for card-holders to update IDs. In response, DOD is allowing security officials to temporarily accept certain expired DOD-issued credentials, but cardholders must have them extended electronically in the appropriate DOD databases, according to an April 16 undersecretary of defense memorandum

DOD-issued credentials include CACs and Volunteer Logical Access Credentials, which are commonly issued to people on volunteer assignments, said Jose Gonzalez, a physical security specialist with DLA Installation Management.

The web-based Trusted Associate Sponsorship System allows additional categories of personnel to obtain a CAC.  Some example are contractors, foreign affiliates, non-DOD civil service employees and non-DOD presidential appointees, Gonzalez said.

Eligible cardholders can update and rekey CAC certificates that haven’t expired but are within 30 days of expiration at DOD’s online ID Card Office. After updating certificates, employees must follow regular procedures for publishing certificates to the global address list or risk losing access to DOD networks, systems and email. Those who lose access must visit a DOD ID Card Office in person for a new CAC, Gonzalez added. Employees who receive an error message when trying to rekey certificates should contact the DLA public key infrastructure helpdesk.

Employees with an affiliation end-date before Sept. 30 – the maximum certificate extension date allowed – should contact their human resources representative to ensure the date is correct. The CAC update or rekey will be Sept. 30 or the affiliation end-date, whichever is sooner.