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I had to get one of these recently. (And thankfully, I am done with the government for a while.) If you want a process that will make you believe "wow, we have

I had to get one of these recently. (And thankfully, I am done with the government for a while.) If you want a process that will make you believe "wow, we have too much bureaucracy in this country", then get a PIV card. By the end, I thought I was definitely just being strung along in some sort of eternal joke, and had started joking that the reward for completing forms was more forms. So many forms. Randomly imposed, arbitrary deadlines that were utterly impossible. (And … not really deadlines, since you can just email and say a polite "how about no" & magic extensions happen.) Forms that were submitted by encrypting them into a zip, and then sending zip+password in an email…? The person who fingerprinted me was royally annoyed at me for showing up with all the materials their office had told me to show up with, but not having the materials that I wasn't told to show up with. (And that I wasn't "in the system" — okay. I'm new! I don't know why that is, nor who to ask, nor what 98% of the acronyms mean.) You want to stop being a contractor, and give the PIV card back? More forms. I started jokingly wondering when signatures in blood happen. Definitely wasn't worth it, in my case.

Avamander 3y ago
It's weird to read this coming from a country that basically bundles PIV with your ID. Once every few years you take a new picture and go grab it from a police station in half an hour and that's basically it. And at the same time support this widespread would not exist without the U.S. using PIV, so I'm glad people bother :D I also recall some U.S. government site recommending a small and sleek card reader designed here (folds into an USB-stick shape). Hopefully these processes improve and systems become more interoperable cross-borders at some point.
- lxgr 3y ago
  What country, out of curiosity? Mine used to issue PIV smartcards (I think; at least there was a PKCS#11 driver for it available), but discontinued it in favor of server-hosted “private keys” unlocked via SMS-OTP (I wish I was kidding).
  - Avamander 3y ago
    Estonia, but Finland and a few others have a similar things going on.
2devnull 3y ago
“Forms that were submitted by encrypting them into a zip, and then sending zip+password in an email…?” I suspect that’s not too uncommon.
- lxgr 3y ago
  Yes, I’ve experienced it a few times as well. That doesn’t make it any less bizarre though.
- deathanatos 3y ago
  I'd also add that the instructions were (paraphrased to show the absurdity of them) 1. create a plaintext ZIP 2. completely overwrite the file created in #1 with an encrypted ZIP so if you followed the instructions, one of the steps was utterly pointless, too.

Avamander 3y ago

It's weird to read this coming from a country that basically bundles PIV with your ID. Once every few years you take a new picture and go grab it from a police station in half an hour and that's basically it. And at the same time support this widespread would not exist without the U.S. using PIV, so I'm glad people bother :D I also recall some U.S. government site recommending a small and sleek card reader designed here (folds into an USB-stick shape). Hopefully these processes improve and systems become more interoperable cross-borders at some point.

lxgr 3y ago
What country, out of curiosity? Mine used to issue PIV smartcards (I think; at least there was a PKCS#11 driver for it available), but discontinued it in favor of server-hosted “private keys” unlocked via SMS-OTP (I wish I was kidding).
- Avamander 3y ago
  Estonia, but Finland and a few others have a similar things going on.

2devnull 3y ago

“Forms that were submitted by encrypting them into a zip, and then sending zip+password in an email…?” I suspect that’s not too uncommon.

lxgr 3y ago
Yes, I’ve experienced it a few times as well. That doesn’t make it any less bizarre though.
deathanatos 3y ago
I'd also add that the instructions were (paraphrased to show the absurdity of them) 1. create a plaintext ZIP 2. completely overwrite the file created in #1 with an encrypted ZIP so if you followed the instructions, one of the steps was utterly pointless, too.