In a cooperative effort with government and industry, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted a study to assess the current and future information technology (IT) security needs of the commercial, civil, and military sectors. The primary objectives of the study were to: a) determine a basic set of information protection policies and control objectives that pertain to the secure processing needs of organizations within all sectors; and b) identify protection requirements and technical approaches that are used, desired or sought so they can be considered for future federal standards and guidelines. The findings of this study address the basic security needs of IT product users, including system developers, end users, administrators, and evaluators. Security needs have been identified based on actual existing and well-understood security organizational practices.