National Institute of Standards and Technology

• Wednesday federal headlines — December 30, 2015

  In Wednesday's federal headlines, the White House released a cyber deterrence policy after repeated calls from Congress to do so.

  Federal Newscast

  December 30, 2015
• IRS online applications don’t meet NIST authentication standards

  The IRS has too many varying authentication methods and lacks a service-wide strategy for its growing number of online taxpayer applications, according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

  Cybersecurity

  December 29, 2015
• New cyber workforce guidelines included in 2016 budget

  Specific guidelines for maintaining and keeping track of the federal cybersecurity workforce are included in the 2016 omnibus, which Congress passed last week. Agency leaders will assign each position an employment code under the creation of a new National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education.

  Cybersecurity

  December 21, 2015
• David Ferraiolo: Importance of Attribute Based Access Controls

  The National Institute of Standards and Technology is comparing the existing standards for Attribute Based Access Control. A new publication from the agency describes the two standards, NGAC and XACML and compares them with respect to five criteria to help users and vendors make informed decisions when addressing future data service policy enforcement requirements. David Ferraiolo, group manager of the Systems and Applications Group at NIST, tells Federal Drive with Tom Temin what Attribute Based Access Controls are and why they are important.

  Federal Drive

  December 21, 2015
• Finally an answer emerges for why IPv6

  The FCC becomes the latest agency to fully move to the more secure protocol. NIST's scorecard shows agency progress over the last decade.

  Technology

  December 14, 2015
• OMB tells GSA, agencies to draw up rapid contracting plans for cyber breaches

  The chief of OMB's new cyber unit says agencies have paid a lot of attention to preventing cyber breaches, but not enough to recovering from them.

  Cybersecurity

  November 30, 2015
• Heather Evans: NIST takes next step toward more open data

  NIST last summer launched what it calls reference data challenge. It was seeking a new app that could provide access at least one of six NIST data sets in a move toward open data. The challenge just concluded. Heather Evans is a challenge manager at NIST. She talked with Federal News Radio’s Eric White on Federal Drive with Tom Temin about the those results and what the agency has planned.

  Federal Drive

  November 24, 2015
• Lawmakers press for two-year deal on debt ceiling, federal budget

  House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wants to make one last budget deal before he leaves Congress at the end of the week. The two-year deal is expected to designate increases in defense spending as Overseas Contingency Operations funds, and would boost civilian agency spending as well, though not at the levels President Barack Obama requested.

  Budget

  October 26, 2015
• Taking the buzz out of the ‘Internet of Things’

  While industry is excited about the Internet of Things, agencies have shown they've been interconnecting systems and applications for years. But the Privacy Act is standing in the government's way to go further, some say.

  Technology

  October 12, 2015
• Memo to OPM: Encryption is only strong if you set it up right

  Data protection using encryption won't buy much unless you design it correctly. Like, keeping the keys away from the encrypted data. It's all in NIST publication 800-57. Look it up.

  Tom Temin Commentary

  September 24, 2015
• Michael Garris: NIST bringing touchless technology to security checkpoints

  It might seem like something out of a science fiction novel, but soon travellers might be able to quickly moving through security checkpoints just by showing their hand to a scanner. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is working with industry to bring fast, touchless fingerprint readers out of the lab and into the marketplace. The touchless technology offers unprecedented speed and a hygienic alternative to conventional fingerprint readers. Michael Garris is a Biometric Senior Scientist at NIST. He told the Federal Drive with Tom Temin that the scanners you touch are okay.

  Federal Drive

  September 22, 2015
• Vernon Lee, Hildy Ferraiolo, Chris Edwards: PIV cards move to mobile devices

  We turn next to a project of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It's working to incorporate data from a federal, personal identification verification card, or PIV card, right into your mobile device. Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with the principles on this project. Vernon Lee is the Chief Technical Officer of Microsoft Civilian, Hildy Ferraiolo is a computer scientist at NIST, and Chris Edwards is the CTO at Intercede.

  Federal Drive

  September 21, 2015
• Cyber requirements & supply chain assurance

  Attorney Bob Metzger with Rogers Joseph O'Donnell, PC, joins host Roger Waldron for a wide ranging discussion of the federal government's cybersecurity policies and regulations including the new DFARS cyber rule. September 15, 2015

  Off the Shelf

  September 18, 2015
• When cyber compliance is just not enough

  Sol Cates, chief security officer for Vormetric, argues that while new policies and regulations are important, the answer to an organization’s cybersecurity problems starts with making a decision to dedicating more resources to solutions and less to filling out forms.

  Commentary

  September 15, 2015