NIST's National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has released a new draft report, NIST Interagency or Internal Report (NISTIR) 8336, Background on Identity Federation Technologies for the Public Safety Community.

NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-63-3 defines identity federation as “a process that allows the conveyance of identity and authentication information across a set of networked systems.” Identity federation technologies can help public safety organizations (PSOs) to share information with each other more easily while also protecting that data from unauthorized access. Identity federation technologies can also help PSOs transition services to the cloud and facilitate the use of mobile devices such as smartphones.

This draft report provides PSOs with a basic primer on identity federation, and it is intended to aid PSOs in adopting identity federation technologies. PSOs considering identity federation technologies are encouraged to use the guidelines in this NISTIR. This report was developed in joint partnership between the NCCoE and the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division at NIST. 

The public comment period is open through July 26, 2021. See the publication details for a copy of the draft and instructions for submitting comments. You can also contact us at psfr-nccoe@nist.gov. 

NOTE: A call for patent claims is included on page iii of this draft. For additional information, see the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) Patent Policy--Inclusion of Patents in ITL Publications.