The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has finalized a new guide, NIST Special Publication (SP) 1800-13, Mobile Application Single Sign-On: Improving Authentication for Public Safety First Responders. This work was done in collaboration with the NIST Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division.

On-demand access to public safety data is critical to ensuring that first responders can protect life and property during an emergency. This often-sensitive public safety information increasingly needs to be accessed via mobile devices, so robust and reliable mobile device authentication mechanisms that do not hinder the delivery of emergency services are required.

This guide describes how public safety organizations can implement single sign-on capabilities for public safety personnel, use identity federation to authenticate personnel across organization boundaries, and enable multifactor authentication with a high level of assurance. These capabilities can enable public safety personnel to gain access to public safety information efficiently and securely by using mobile devices.