NIST Briefs Committee of Visitors

Summary:
The following NIST documents were created to brief a blue ribbon Committee of Visitors (COV) charged with reviewing the agency’s cryptographic standards and guidelines program by NIST’s primary independent advisory panel, the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT).  The VCAT held a public meeting on July 14, 2014 to discuss the recommendations from the COV members and finalize a report detailing recommendations to NIST on steps to strengthen its cryptographic standards and guidelines program. The VCAT's report, along with the individual recommendations of the COV members, are published on the VCAT’s website.

COV review materials posted here include briefings provided by NIST at the request of the COV and the VCAT and a Briefing Book containing descriptions of NIST's body of work in cryptography.

Also included are separate background documents collected in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related both to the development of NIST Special Publication 800-90A and to a related standard developed by the Accredited Standards Committee X9, ANS X9.82 Part 3. These documents include emails, presentations, committee meeting notes and other materials.

NISTs news release on the review by the VCAT and COV can be found here. 

NIST Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Development Program Briefing Book

Presentation to COV - April 30, 2014

• Background-Public Concerns and Initial Steps

NIST Presentations - May 29, 2014 Committee of Visitors (COV) Face-to-Face

• Dual EC in X9.82 and SP 800-90, John Kelsey and Elaine Barker
• Development of SP 800-38 Series for Block Cipher Modes, Morris Dworkin
• Development of FIPS 186: Digital Signatures (and Elliptic Curves), Dustin Moody

NIST FOIA Material Released to COV- X9.82 and NIST SP 800-90 Process (June 10, 2014)

NIST FOIA Material Released (November 24, 2014)

NIST-NSA Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

• 1989
• 2010
  

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