PHILADELPHIA, PA -- (Marketwire) -- 08/07/08 -- Probaris, Inc., and its partners, issued 38 Virginia First Responder Authentication Credentials (FRACs) at the end of July in Chesapeake, Virginia. The just in time credential issuance effort was one segment of the multi-day Summer Sizzle electronic validation demonstration. Summer Sizzle was hosted by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in conjunction with multiple states and state-level jurisdictions.

The purpose of the event in Chesapeake was to demonstrate just in time issuance of high assurance credentials (i.e., FRACs) to emergency response personnel. Summer Sizzle also includes multiple scenarios to demonstrate the use of the credentials in disaster situations. The FRACs are interoperable with the Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201). The FIPS 201 standard allows for interoperability among credentials issued by disparate federal, state, and local jurisdictions.

Probaris equipped a mobile command center with its Probaris ID(TM) suite of identity products for the Summer Sizzle demonstration. The mobile command center travels to disaster sites to issue FRACs to federal, state and local emergency responders. At the event last week, Probaris conducted the registration, enrollment, and issuance of FIPS 201 interoperable FRAC cards for state and local first responders in Virginia's Hampton Roads community.

This multi-day Summer Sizzle event builds on a series of successful DHS demonstrations over the past three years. Collectively the demonstrations validate the use of standards compliant, interoperable credentials in a wide range of emergency response scenarios. The previous demonstration, dubbed Spring Blitz, was held in Florida to simulate responses to disasters associated with mass gatherings, such as the Super Bowl, and hurricanes.

The conclusion of the Summer Sizzle demonstration will highlight the use of the high assurance credentials to gain access to the Federal Inter-agency Advisory Board (IAB) meeting. The meeting was held on Thursday, July 24, 2008 at the General Services Administration (GSA) Auditorium in Washington, DC.

About Probaris

Probaris (www.probaris.com) develops and markets the Probaris ID™ Product Suite, an end-to-end solution for issuance and verification of employee identities. The solution is used to gather employee biometrics and other identity data for the life cycle management of secure credentials. Probaris ID is currently being used by federal agencies to comply with the HSPD-12 mandate of 2004. It is built on Probaris SP, the industry-leading secure business process management platform. Probaris ID bundles multiple pre-integrated GSA-approved products to provide all elements of the credential solution.