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FIPS 201-3  Personal Identity Verification (PIV) for Federal Employees and  Contractors  is available at https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/fips/201/3/final.  A chronical of changes since the initial issuance of FIPS 201 is available in FIPS 201-3, Appendix E, Revision History.    Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201 entitled Personal Identity Verification of Federal Employees and Contractors establishes a standard for a Personal Identity Verification (PIV) system (Standard) that meets the control and security objectives of Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12...

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...

[Redirect to https://www.nist.gov/itl/applied-cybersecurity/privacy-engineering] The NIST Privacy Engineering Program’s (PEP) mission is to support the development of trustworthy information systems by applying measurement science and system engineering principles to the creation of frameworks, risk models, guidance, tools, and standards that protect privacy and, by extension, civil liberties.

Testing PKI Components NIST/Information Technology Laboratory responds to industry and user needs for objective, neutral tests for information technology. ITL recognizes such tests as the enabling tools that help companies produce the next generation of products and services. It is a goal of the NIST PKI Program to develop such tests to help companies produce interoperable PKI components. NIST worked with CygnaCom Solutions and BAE Systems to develop a suite of tests that will enable developers and validation laboratories to determine a PKI client application's conformance to the path...

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Random Bit Generation (RBG) project focuses on the development and validation of generating random numbers that are essential for cryptographic and security applications. SP 800-90 Series The project provides guidelines through the SP 800-90 series, which includes recommendations on deterministic random bit generator (DRBG) mechanisms, entropy sources, and construction principles for RBGs, and has three parts: SP 800-90A, Recommendation for Random Number Generation Using Deterministic Random Bit Generators, specifies mechanisms for...

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 was passed by Congress to encourage the upgrade of voting equipment across the United States. HAVA established the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC), chaired by the Director of NIST, was well as a Board of Advisors and Standard Board. HAVA calls on NIST to provide technical support to the EAC and TGDC in efforts related to human factors, security, and laboratory accreditation. The Information Technology Laboratory supports the activities of the EAC and TGDC related to voting equipment...

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...

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...

Archived. This page is archived for informational purposes only. End-of-Life Announcement: NIST SCAP Validation Program The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces the phased conclusion of the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) Validation Program. Since its inception in 2009, the SCAP Validation Program has played a crucial role in advancing standardized security automation and vulnerability management. Managed through the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP), the program enabled independent laboratories to test and validate...

[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...

C-SCRM News | C-SCRM Resources Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management (C-SCRM) involves identifying, assessing, and mitigating the risks associated with the distributed and interconnected nature of Information Communications Technology and Operational Technology (ICT/OT)  product and service supply chains throughout the entire life cycle of a system (including design, development, distribution, deployment, acquisition, maintenance, and destruction). Examples of risks include insertion of counterfeits, unauthorized production, tampering, theft, insertion of malicious software and hardware,...

Software is vital to our economy and way of life as part of the critical infrastructure for the modern world. Too often cost and complexity make it difficult to manage software effectively, leaving the software open for attack. To properly manage software, enterprises need to maintain accurate software inventories of their managed devices in support of higher-level business, information technology, and cybersecurity functions. Accurate software inventories help an enterprise to: Manage compliance with software license agreements. Knowing what software is installed and used can help an...

In Special Publication 800-208, Recommendation for Stateful Hash-Based Signature Schemes, NIST approves two schemes for stateful hash-based signatures (HBS) as part of the post-quantum cryptography development effort.  The two schemes were developed through the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF): 1) XMSS, specified in Request for Comments (RFC) 8391 in May 2018, and 2) LMS, in RFC 8554 in April 2019. Since being published in 2020, NIST has received feedback in regards to the restriction against private key export as laid out in SP 800-208.  In response, NIST has held a few public discussions...

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....

The multi-party paradigm of threshold cryptography enables threshold schemes, which apply principles of secure multiparty computation (MPC) to achieve protocols that enable a secure distribution of trust in the operation of cryptographic primitives. Threshold schemes can be applied to NIST standardized primitives/schemes, and beyond. The technical scope of the MPTC-project includes threshold schemes (for signatures, public-key encryption/decryption, ciphers, hashing, fully-homomorphic encryption (FHE), and key-generation), as well as auxiliary techniques (such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP)...

The purpose of the United States Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB) initiative is to create security configuration baselines for Information Technology products widely deployed across the federal agencies. The USGCB baseline evolved from the Federal Desktop Core Configuration mandate. The USGCB is a Federal Government-wide initiative that provides guidance to agencies on what should be done to improve and maintain an effective configuration settings focusing primarily on security. 

Systems security engineering contributes to a broad-based and holistic security perspective and focus within the systems engineering effort. This ensures that stakeholder protection needs and security concerns associated with the system are properly identified and addressed in all systems engineering tasks throughout the system life cycle. Mission Statement... To provide a basis to formalize a discipline for systems security engineering in terms of its principles, concepts, and activities. To foster a common mindset to deliver security for any system, regardless of its scope, size,...

To become a laboratory for the CST program there are a number of requirements. A lab must become accredited under the CST LAP which is part of NIST’s NVLAP. A lab must sign and enter into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with NIST.  Click here for an example agreement. A lab must follow the “Principles of Proper Conduct” listed below. A lab must be US based if participating in the NPIVP scope. The following list are the Scopes maintained at NIST: Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP); Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP); NIST Personal...

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....

The Measurements for Information Security Program aims to better equip organizations to purposefully and effectively manage their information security risk through the development of flexible approaches to the selection, assessment, and management of measures and metrics.  Information Security Measurement Guide  SP 800-55v1 Measurement Guide for Information Security – Volume 1, Identifying and Selecting Measures, provides a flexible approach to the development, selection, and prioritization of information security measures.   SP 800-55v2 Measurement Guide for Information Security – Volume...

[Redirect to https://www.nist.gov/itl/applied-cybersecurity/nist-cybersecurity-iot-program] NIST’s Cybersecurity for the Internet of Things (IoT) program supports the development and application of standards, guidelines, and related tools to improve the cybersecurity of connected devices and the environments in which they are deployed. By collaborating with stakeholders across government, industry, international bodies, and academia, the program aims to cultivate trust and foster an environment that enables innovation on a global scale.

[Redirect to: https://www.nist.gov/itl/ssd/software-quality-group/samate/software-assurance-reference-dataset-sard] The purpose of the Software Assurance Reference Dataset (SARD) is to provide users, researchers, and software security assurance tool developers with a set of known security flaws. This will allow end users to evaluate tools and tool developers to test their methods. You will be redirected to the SARD homepage.

[Redirect to:  https://usnistgov.github.io/BF/] The Bugs Framework (BF) is a structured causal classification of security bugs and related faults, featuring a formal language for unambiguous specification of security weaknesses and underlined by them vulnerabilities. It organizes bugs by the operations of orthogonal software or hardware execution phases, faults -- by their input operands, and errors -- by their output results. An error either propagates to a fault or is a final error introducing an exploit vector. Bugs and faults are the possible causes for security weaknesses; errors and...

Mappings to NIST Documents The National Online Informative References (OLIR) Program is a NIST effort to facilitate subject matter experts (SMEs) in defining standardized online informative references (OLIRs) between elements of their documents, products, and services and elements of NIST documents like the Cybersecurity Framework Version 1.1, Privacy Framework Version 1.0, NISTIR 8259A, or NIST SP 800-53 Revision 5. The NIST Internal Report (IR) 8278, R1 – National Online Informative References (OLIR) Program: Overview, Benefits, and Use focuses on explaining what OLIRs are, what benefits...

[Redirect to https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/software-supply-chain-and-devops-security-practices ] DevOps brings together software development and operations to shorten development cycles, allow organizations to be agile, and maintain the pace of innovation while taking advantage of cloud-native technology and practices. Industry and government have fully embraced and are rapidly implementing these practices to develop and deploy software in operational environments, often without a full understanding and consideration of security.