IGC Basic Assurance Certificates and IGC Medium Software Certificates may be retrieved through your browser, which stores the certificate private key in your local operating system certificate store. When retrieving software certificates, they should always be configured for high security, which means a password will be always be required to access the locally stored private key.
IGC Basic Assurance on Hardware and IGC Medium Hardware Certificates require certificate private key storage in an IdenTrust-provided hardware device (i.e., smart card or USB token) separate from your local operating system/browser. The certificates are retrieved through your browser and appear in your local operating system certificate store; however, the private key is installed onto the hardware device. To use a hardware certificate, the device must be inserted into your system (unless you are using an OTP device) and you must provide the device password before any application may make use of your certificate private key. All IdenTrust provided hardware devices are certified at FIPS 140-2 Level 2 or higher for cryptographic functions.
IGC PIV-I Certificates are stored on a special type of smart card called a PIV card. PIV cards are required to meet NIST specifications created specifically for PIV, and must be on a U.S. Federal Government Approved Product List APL. IdenTrust supplies only APL-approved PIV cards for storage of IGC PIV-I certificates.