Security standards help users implement adequate protection in their systems. Independent, third-party conformance testing to security standards provides those users with a metric beyond vendor affirmation in determining conformance. Independent third-party conformance testing gives manufacturers... See full abstract

Security standards help users implement adequate protection in their systems. Independent, third-party conformance testing to security standards provides those users with a metric beyond vendor affirmation in determining conformance. Independent third-party conformance testing gives manufacturers the opportunity to claim conformance to a standard using a strong metric. However neither standards nor testing programs can be successful without the support of the manufacturers and users they are intended to serve. This paper discusses a standard that was developed by NIST in conjunction with industry, federal and private sector users, and the validation program that provides users the necessary metric to determine conformance.
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