[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 157 (Friday, August 14, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48823-48825]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-20039]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No.: 150805680-5680-01]


National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, Derived Personal 
Identity Verification Credentials Building Block

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of 
Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
invites organizations to provide products and technical expertise to 
support and demonstrate security platforms for the Derived Personal 
Identity Verification (PIV) Credentials Building Block. This notice is 
the initial step for the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence 
(NCCoE) in collaborating with technology companies to address 
cybersecurity challenges identified under the Derived PIV Credentials 
Building Block. Participation in the building block is open to all 
interested organizations.

DATES: Interested parties must contact NIST to request a letter of 
interest template to be completed and submitted to NIST that identifies 
the organization requesting participation in the NCCoE Derived PIV 
Credentials Building Block and the capabilities and components that are 
being offered to the collaborative effort. Letters of interest will be 
accepted on a first come, first served basis. Collaborative activities 
will commence as soon as enough completed and signed letters of 
interest have been returned to address all the necessary components and 
capabilities, but no earlier than September 14, 2015. When the building 
block has been completed, NIST will post a notice on the NCCoE Derived 
PIV Credentials Building Block Web site at http://nccoe.nist.gov/derivedcredentials/ announcing the completion of the building block and 
informing the public that it will no longer accept letters of interest 
for this Derived PIV Credentials building block.

ADDRESSES: The NCCoE is located at 9600 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, MD 
20850. Letters of interest may be submitted to [email protected] or 
via hardcopy to National Institute of Standards and Technology, NCCoE; 
9600 Gudelsky Drive; Rockville, MD 20850. Organizations whose letters 
of interest are accepted in accordance with the process set forth in 
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice will be asked to 
sign a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with 
NIST. A CRADA template can be found at: http://nccoe.nist.gov/node/138.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim McBride via email to [email protected]; by telephone 240-314-6811; or by mail to National 
Institute of Standards and Technology, NCCoE; 9600 Gudelsky Drive; 
Rockville, MD 20850. Additional details about the Derived PIV 
Credentials Building Block are available at http://nccoe.nist.gov/derivedcredentials/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    The NCCoE, part of NIST, is a public-private collaboration for 
accelerating the widespread adoption of integrated cybersecurity tools 
and technologies. The NCCoE brings together experts from industry, 
government, and academia under one roof to develop practical, 
interoperable cybersecurity approaches that address the real-world 
needs of complex Information Technology (IT) systems. By accelerating 
dissemination and use of these integrated tools and technologies for 
protecting IT assets, the NCCoE will enhance trust in U.S. IT 
communications, data, and storage systems; reduce risk for companies 
and individuals using IT systems; and encourage development of 
innovative, job-creating cybersecurity products and services.

Process

    NIST is soliciting responses from all sources of relevant security 
capabilities (see below) to enter into a Cooperative Research and 
Development Agreement (CRADA) to provide products and technical 
expertise to support and demonstrate security platforms for the Derived 
PIV Credentials building block. The full Derived Personal Identity 
Verification (PIV) Credentials building block can be viewed at: http://nccoe.nist.gov/derivedcredentials/.
    Interested parties must contact NIST to request a letter of 
interest template to be completed and submitted to NIST that identifies 
the organization requesting participation in the NCCoE Derived PIV 
Credentials Building Block and the capabilities and components

[[Page 48824]]

that are being offered to the collaborative effort. NIST will contact 
interested parties if there are questions regarding the responsiveness 
of the letters of interest to the Derived PIV Credentials building 
block objective or requirements identified below and to obtain 
additional information. NIST will select participants who have 
submitted responsive letters of interest on a first come, first served 
basis within each category of product components or capabilities listed 
below up to the number of participants in each category necessary to 
carry out this Derived PIV Credentials building block. However, there 
may be continuing opportunity to participate even after initial 
activity commences. Selected participants will be required to enter 
into a consortium CRADA with NIST (for reference, see ADDRESSES section 
above). NIST published a notice in the Federal Register on October 19, 
2012 (77 FR 64314) inviting U.S. companies to enter into National 
Cybersecurity Excellence Partnerships (NCEPs) in furtherance of the 
NCCoE. For this demonstration project, NCEP partners will not be given 
priority for participation.

Derived PIV Credentials Building Block Objective

    Organizations protect their information systems, in part, by 
limiting access to the minimum set of users required to perform a 
function. This principle of ``least privilege'' requires both 
authentication and authorization processes. Federal Information 
Processing Standards Publication 201-2, ``Personal Identity 
Verification (PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors,'' recommends 
using smart cards with user data in conjunction with passwords to 
provide two-factor authentication to federal information systems. While 
many desktop and laptop computers have built-in card readers, 
enterprises today rely heavily on the productivity of mobile devices 
(i.e., smartphones and tablets) that do not easily accommodate card 
readers. Organizations reliant on smart-card-and-password two-factor 
authentication need to authenticate users of mobile devices in a way 
that is more tamper-resistant than a password and as easy to use as a 
smart card. However, it is challenging to use smart card on the various 
mobile devices due to their form factor. Attaching or tethering a 
separate external smart card reader to the mobile phones or tablets 
creates usability and portability challenges and makes the card an 
impractical authentication token.
    This building block will demonstrate, using smart cards, initially 
PIV cards, how derived smart card credentials can be added to mobile 
devices so that they may be used for remote authentication to 
information technology systems in operational environments. An initial 
derived credentials proof of concept platform has been developed by 
NIST ITL's Computer Security Division. Personal identification in 
mobile device environments is important in Federal (PIV), Federal 
Contractor (PIV-Interoperable or PIV-I), and general business (PIV-
Compatible or CIV) environments. The goal of the building block effort 
is to demonstrate a feasible security platform based on Federal 
identity verification standards and guidelines and the NIST-developed 
existing demonstration prototype proof of concept that can support 
operations in PIV, PIV-I, and CIV environments. This building block 
will use commercially available technologies to demonstrate a public 
key infrastructure (PKI) credentials derived from a PIV-compatible card 
that is consistent with the requirements in NIST Special Publication 
800-157, ``Guidelines for Derived Personal Identity Verification (PIV) 
Credentials.'' The derived PIV X.509-based credentials will be used for 
logical access to remote resources hosted within an on-premises data 
center or in the public cloud. The corresponding derived private key 
will be stored in a cryptographic module with alternative form factor 
such as embedded hardware or software in a mobile device or a removable 
token such as a secure digital (SD) card, universal integrated circuit 
card (UICC, the new generation of SIM cards), or USB token.
    A detailed description of the Derived PIV Credentials Building 
Block is available at: http://nccoe.nist.gov/derivedcredentials/.

Requirements

    Each responding organization's letter of interest should identify 
which security platform component(s) or capability(ies) it is offering. 
Letters of interest should not include company proprietary information, 
and all components and capabilities must be commercially available. 
Components are listed in section 6 of the Derived Personal Identity 
Verification (PIV) Credentials Building Block description (for 
reference, please see the link in the PROCESS section above) and 
include, but are not limited to:

 Client systems
 Server systems
 Cloud computing services
 DNS/DNSSEC services
 Removable MicroSD tokens
 Removable USB security tokens
 Removable UICC tokens
 Embedded Mobile Device Software tokens
 Embedded Hardware
 Virtual private network service
 Domain name services
 Windows domain controllers
 Active Directory Federation Servers
 Identity management system
 Cards management system
 Certificate authorities for PIV and Derived PIV Credentials
 Application Proxy Servers
 PIV/PIV-I/CIV Card Management Systems
 PIV/PIV-I/CIV smart card writers and printer
 PIV/PIV-I/CIV compliant smart card readers
 PIV/PIV-I/CIV compliant Smart cards
 Mobile devices
 Operating Systems
 Laptop computer
    Each responding organization's letter of interest should identify 
how their products address one or more of the desired solution 
characteristics in section 3 of the Derived Personal Identity 
Verification (PIV) Credentials Building Block description (for 
reference, please see the link in the PROCESS section above).
    Additional details about the Derived PIV Credentials Building Block 
are available at: http://nccoe.nist.gov/derivedcredentials/.
    NIST cannot guarantee that all of the products proposed by 
respondents will be used in the demonstration. Each prospective 
participant will be expected to work collaboratively with NIST staff 
and other project participants under the terms of the consortium CRADA 
in the development of the Derived PIV Credentials Building Block. 
Prospective participants' contribution to the collaborative effort will 
include assistance in establishing the necessary interface 
functionality, connection and set-up capabilities and procedures, 
demonstration harnesses, environmental and safety conditions for use, 
integrated platform user instructions, and demonstration plans and 
scripts necessary to demonstrate the desired capabilities. Each 
participant will train NIST personnel, as necessary, to operate its 
product in capability demonstrations. Following successful 
demonstrations, NIST will publish a description of the security 
platform and its performance characteristics sufficient to permit other 
organizations to develop and deploy security platforms that meet the 
security objectives of the Derived PIV Credentials Building Block. 
These descriptions will be public information.
    Under the terms of the consortium CRADA, participants will commit 
to providing:


[[Page 48825]]


1. Access for all participants' project teams to component interfaces 
and the organization's experts necessary to make functional connections 
among security platform components
2. Support for development and demonstration of the Derived PIV 
Credentials Building Block in NCCoE facilities which will be conducted 
in a manner consistent with Federal requirements (e.g., FIPS 200, FIPS 
201, SP 800-53, and SP 800-63)
    In addition, NIST will support development of interfaces among 
participants' products by providing IT infrastructure, laboratory 
facilities, office facilities, collaboration facilities, and staff 
support to component composition, security platform documentation, and 
demonstration activities.
    The dates of the demonstration of the Derived PIV Credentials 
Building Block capability will be announced on the NCCoE Web site at 
least two weeks in advance at http://nccoe.nist.gov/. The expected 
outcome of the demonstration is to improve Derived PIV Credentials 
within the enterprise. Participating organizations will gain from the 
knowledge that their products are interoperable with other 
participants' offerings.
    For additional information on the NCCoE governance, business 
processes, and NCCoE operational structure, visit the NCCoE Web site 
http://nccoe.nist.gov/.

Richard Cavanagh,
Acting Associate Director for Laboratory Programs.
[FR Doc. 2015-20039 Filed 8-13-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE P