News - week commencing 15 December 2025
Current and future non-production environment plans and other relevant topics to help make connecting to NHS national systems easier.
CIS Software and Hardware Retirement
As part of the national focus on cyber security through software and hardware currency, IAM is taking steps to permanently block the use of unsupported Identity Agent software and legacy smartcards.
More information is available on the following page, which includes Production dates, and details on supported Identity Agent and smartcard versions.
From 15 December 2025 - unsupported Identity Agent advisories
Authentication using any unsupported version of Identity Agent will receive the following advisory:
“You are using a retired version of Identity Agent and are at risk of smartcard authentication being blocked.
Please contact your IT teams to ensure you have the latest Identity Agent.
Find out more?”
The advisory will provide a link to further information, including supported Identity Agent versions and planned dates for Production (the link above).
30 January 2026 - unsupported Identity Agents and legacy smartcards blocked
Authentication using any unsupported version of Identity Agent or legacy smartcard will be blocked, with one of the following messages:
“This smartcard version is now blocked from authenticating”
“This Identity Agent version is now blocked from authenticating”
The user will need to update their Identity Agent and / or smartcard version to regain the ability to authenticate in PTL.
Key contact for any questions
If you have any issues concerns or issues, please report as normal to the ITOC Support Desk: [email protected]
Last edited: 12 December 2025 4:51 pm