Search CSRC

Security Content Automation Protocol Version 2 (SCAP v2) is a major update to the SCAP 1.x publications. SCAP v2 covers a broader scope in an attempt to further improve enterprise security through standardization and automation. This project page will be used to provide information on the SCAP v2 effort, as well as updates on ongoing work, and directions on how to get involved. Important Links: SCAPv2 Community - Get involved in the SCAP effort by joining our mailing lists. SCAPv2 Frequently Asked Questions - A good place to start if you are new to SCAP v2 or have questions about the...

NIST is in the process of addressing public comments on Draft Special Publication (SP) 800-92 Revision 1, Cybersecurity Log Management Planning Guide. The purpose of this document is to help all organizations improve their log management so they have the log data they need. The document's scope is cybersecurity log management planning, and all other aspects of logging and log management, including implementing log management technology and making use of log data, are out of scope. This document replaces the original SP 800-92, Guide to Computer Security Log Management. That material was...

Security Research Review Seminar is a biweekly talk arranged by the Computer Security Division (773) of the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at NIST. Researchers, academics, and practitioners for within and outside NIST are invited to discuss their work in the areas of hardware, software, AI, and system level security. Interesting topics related to verification, validation, assurance, and standardizations are also discussed. Upcoming Talks The following schedule is tentative: Date Speaker Title Dec/Jan Hamid...

The concept of Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) has existed for many years. It represents a point on the spectrum of logical access control from simple access control lists to more capable role-based access, and finally to a highly flexible method for providing access based on the evaluation of attributes. In November 2009, the Federal Chief Information Officers Council (Federal CIO Council) published the Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management (FICAM) Roadmap and Implementation Plan v1.0, which provided guidance to federal organizations to evolve their logical access control...

Approved Algorithms | SHA-3 Derived Functions | Security Strengths | Testing Implementations Approved Algorithms A hash algorithm is used to map a message of arbitrary length to a fixed-length message digest. Approved hash algorithms for generating a condensed representation of a message (message digest) are specified in two Federal Information Processing Standards: FIPS 180-4, Secure Hash Standard and FIPS 202, SHA-3 Standard: Permutation-Based Hash and Extendable-Output Functions. FIPS 180-4 specifies seven hash algorithms: SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm-1), and the SHA-2...

The Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) is a suite of interoperable specifications for the standardized expression, exchange, and processing of security configuration and vulnerability information. SCAP enables consistent automation and reporting across products and environments by defining machine-readable content and associated processing requirements. SCAP continues to be maintained through the development of SCAP 1.4, which builds upon prior releases to preserve interoperability and operational stability across established security automation use cases. NIST welcomes...

[Redirect to https://www.nist.gov/itl/smallbusinesscyber] The vast majority of smaller businesses rely on information technology to run their businesses and to store, process, and transmit information. Protecting this information from unauthorized disclosure, modification, use, or deletion is essential for those companies and their customers. With limited resources and budgets, these companies need cybersecurity guidance, solutions, and training that is practical, actionable, and enables them to cost-effectively address and manage their cybersecurity risks. This NIST Small Business...

Published as RFC8322 in the IETF, The Resource Oriented Lightweight Information Exchange (ROLIE) is standard for exchanging security automation information between two machines, or between a machine and a human operator. As a cooperative effort between NIST and the international computer security community, ROLIE seeks to improve the current state of the art in security automation information sharing. Reducing communication bandwidth, enabling new automation use cases, and easing complicated workflows, ROLIE represents another incremental improvement towards full security automation....

[Redirects to https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/crypto-agility-considerations-migrating-post-quantum-cryptographic-algorithms] The advent of quantum computing technology will compromise many of the current cryptographic algorithms, especially public-key cryptography, which is widely used to protect digital information. Most algorithms on which we depend are used worldwide in components of many different communications, processing, and storage systems. Once access to practical quantum computers becomes available, all public-key algorithms and associated protocols will be vulnerable to criminals,...

Cryptography is critical for securing data at rest or in transit over the IoT. But cryptography fails when a device uses easy-to-guess (weak) keys generated from low-entropy random data. Standard deterministic computers have trouble producing good randomness, especially resource-constrained IoT-class devices that have little opportunity to collect local entropy before they begin network communications. The best sources of true randomness are based on unpredictable physical phenomena, such as quantum effects, but they can be impractical to include in IoT devices. We research novel Internet...

NIST has defined cloud computing in NIST SP 800-145 document as a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. For more than a decade, cloud computing has offered cost savings both in terms of capital expenses and operational expenses, while leveraging leading-edge technologies to meet the information processing needs of users in the public and...

One primary objective of enterprise computing (via a data center, cloud, etc.) is the controlled delivery of data services (DSs) to its users. Typical DSs include applications such as email, workflow management, enterprise calendar, and records management, as well as system level features, such as file, access control and identity management. Although access control (AC) currently plays an important role in securing DSs, if properly designed, AC can be more fundamental to computing than one might expect. That is, the program logic that deals with implementation, distribution, and control over...

The NIST Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography (PEC) program in the Cryptographic Technology Group (CTG), Computer Security Division (CSD), Information Technology Laboratory (ITL), accompanies the progress of emerging technologies in the area of privacy-enhancing cryptography (PEC). Upcoming PEC-related events: WPEC 2026 (2026-Oct-26–28): NIST Workshop on Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography Latest events with available PEC reference material: TCPT3 (2026-Sep-30 and Oct {6, 7, 13}): Talks on FHE and ZKP. MPTS 2026 (2026-Jan-26–29): Talks on MPC, FHE, ZKP. [Slides] STPPA...

The ability to share database resources among collaborating organizations is highly desirable. However, sharing data continues to be a challenge when it comes from different types of database management systems (DBMSs) due to different schemas and data formats. Another challenge that is limiting collaboration is being able to enforce the home organizations local data protection policies while sharing data. For example, can a patient’s condition details be shared with an outside research organization - for a limited time - without sharing the patient’s sensitive diagnosis? Can it be shared...

Public Law 100-235, "The Computer Security Act of 1987," mandated NIST and OPM to create guidelines on computer security awareness and training based on functional organizational roles. Guidelines were produced in the form of NIST Special Publication 800-16 titled, "Information Technology Security Training Requirements: A Role- and Performance-Based Model." The learning continuum modeled in this guideline provides the relationship between awareness, training, and education. The publication also contains a methodology that can be used to develop training courses for a number of audiences which...

The Computer Security Division is working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop guidance on Computer Security Incident Coordination (CSIC). The goal of CSIC is to help diverse collections of organizations to effectively collaborate in the handling of computer security incidents. Effective collaboration raises numerous issues on how and when to share information between organizations, and in what form information should be shared. Because different organizations may have substantially different capabilities for responding to attacks, diagnosing causes, and handling sensitive...

Enterprise networks have become essential to the operation of companies, laboratories, universities, and government agencies. As they continue to grow both in size and complexity, their security has become a critical concern. Vulnerabilities are regularly discovered in software applications which are exploited to stage cyber attacks. There is no objective way to measure the security of an enterprise network. As a result it is difficult to answer such objective questions as "are we more secure than yesterday" or "how should we invest our limited resources to improve security" or "how does this...

NIST releases NIST Cybersecurity White Paper 26, Ordered t-way Combinations for Testing State-based Systems.

Type: Presentation

General Questions and Background What is the purpose of the SP 800-53 Public Comment Website? NIST believes that robust, widely understood, and participatory development processes produce the strongest, most effective, most trusted, and broadly accepted standards and guidelines. The following principles guide NIST's standards and guidelines development: Transparency: All interested and affected parties have access to essential information regarding standards and guidelines-related activities throughout the development process. Openness: Participation is open to all interested...

Presentations & Speakers at a Glance: Keynotes by OMB and Dr. Ron Ross, NIST; Updates from GAO; Presentations by FAA, NASA, Department of Transportation, NARA, DHS, Census, and NIST. For more information, see the full Program. NOTE: FORUM MEETINGS ARE OPEN TO ONLY FEDERAL/STATE EMPLOYEES, HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYEES, AND THEIR DESIGNATED SUPPORT CONTRACTORS. REGISTRANTS MUST USE A .GOV, .EDU, OR .MIL ADDRESS FOR SIGN-UP. SUPPORT CONTRACTORS MUST INDICATE THE AGENCY OR ORGANIZATION THEY SUPPORT. The Federal Computer Security Program Managers Forum (the "Forum") is an informal...

2009-2008 PIV News Archive October 22, 2009: Release of Partial CSP Version 1.3 Software NIST is pleased to announce the release of reference implementation of a Partial CSP Version 1.3, Cryptographic Service Provider for Windows Logon. This existing PIV demonstration software is updated to decompress zipped certificates that are available on production PIV Cards. With this update, the CSP can be used to demonstrate Windows XP Logon with production PIV Cards. Note that this CSP does NOT implement all functions required of a production CSP. Please use the accompanying documentation to...

[Redirects to https://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/biometrics/biometric-conformance-test-software-biocts] The Computer Security Division (CSD) supports the development of national and international biometric standards and promotes conformity assessment through: Participation in the development of biometric standards Sponsorship of conformance testing methodology standard projects Development of associated conformance test architectures and test suites Leadership in national (link is external) and international (link is external) standards development bodies Visit the Biometric Conformance...

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Human-Centered Cybersecurity program, which is part of the Human-Centered Technologies Group (formerly named Visualization and Usability Group), seeks to "champion the human in cybersecurity" by conducting interdisciplinary research to better understand and improve people’s interactions with cybersecurity systems, products, processes, and services. Be sure to connect with NIST and the Human-Centered Cybersecurity program on social media and subscribe to GovDelivery to stay apprised of our latest research. Per the Sept. 29, 2026,...

Abstract: A significant portion of National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) telecommunications relies on the Public Switched Network (PSN). Therefore, NS/EP telecommunications is concerned with the protection of the PSN to ensure that telecommunications services are available and reliable. Service...