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Information Technology Standards

Standards are essential elements of information technology-hardware, software, and networks. Standard interfaces, for example, permit disparate devices and applications to communicate and work together. Standards also underpin computer security and information privacy, and they are critical to realizing many widespread benefits that advances in electronic and mobile commerce are anticipated to deliver.

NIST assists industry groups as they develop IT standards. One function is to provide testbeds that industrial collaborators use to evaluate prospective standards and to determine how best to implement standards in new products and services. Although this work cuts across all of NIST, much of it is carried out in the institute's Information Technology Laboratory. Below, you'll find a sampling of NIST web sites with information on IT standards.
 
bullet Advanced Encryption Standard - AES will be a new Federal Information Processing Standard that specifies a cryptographic algorithm for use by the US government to protect sensitive (unclassified) information. NIST anticipates that the standard also will be widely used by organizations outside of government.
 
bullet Common Criteria - This international standard (ISO/IEC Standard 15408) establishes a common language for specifying security requirements in IT products and systems as well as a rigorous approach for evaluating security features.
 
bullet Computer Security Resource Center - Provides information about a variety of computer security issues, standards, products, and research of concern to federal agencies, industry, and users.
 
bullet Federal Information Processing Standards - When there are compelling federal government requirements, such as for security and interoperability, and no acceptable industry solutions exist, NIST issues standards and guidelines for approval by the US Secretary of Commerce. Many of these FIPS are used by federal agencies and have been adopted by industry.
 
bullet Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing - Develops conformance tests and related tools for assessing conformance to IT standards.
 
Examples of Sector-Focused Activities
 
bullet Electronic Data Exchange - Projects in this program aim to develop: standardized data structures for describing product designs, standards needed to create electronic marketplaces, and standards that enable modularized factory-automation software.
 
bullet Manufacturing Systems Integration Division - MSID responds to industry priorities for interoperability solutions. It helps to define technically sound, neutral integration standards in cooperation with industrial partners.
 
bullet National Wireless Electronic Systems Testbed - N-WEST promotes the development of the broadband wireless industry by creating and carrying out tests and measurements and by promoting sound operational standards and specifications that are based on open technical results.



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For technical questions concerning the Standards Services Division, contact us:

Standards Services Division, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 2100, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-2100
Phone: (301) 975-4000, Fax: (301) 963-2871, Email: ssd@nist.gov
Website comments: ssd-web@nist.gov

Date created: November 12, 2002
Last updated: November 12, 2002

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