[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 243 (Monday, December 19, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 91917-91919]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-30435]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No.: 161116999-6999-01]


National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Multifactor 
Authentication for e-Commerce Project for the Retail Sector

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 Multifactor 
Authentication for e-Commerce Project for the retail sector. 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 retail sector 
program. Participation in the Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce 
Project 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. 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 January 18, 
2017. When the Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce Project search 
for collaborators has been completed, NIST will post a notice on the 
NCCoE retail sector program Web site at https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use_cases/multifactor-authentication-ecommerce announcing the 
completion of the search for collaborators and informing the public 
that it will no longer accept letters of interest for this Multifactor 
Authentication for e-Commerce Project.

ADDRESSES: The NCCoE is located at 9700 Great Seneca Highway, 
Rockville, MD 20850. Letters of interest must be submitted to [email protected] or via hardcopy to National Institute of Standards and 
Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great Seneca Highway, 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: https://nccoe.nist.gov/library/nccoe-consortium-crada-example.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Newhouse via email to 
[email protected]; by telephone 301-975-0232; or by mail to 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great 
Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850. Additional details about the 
Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce Project are available at 
https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use_cases/multifactor-authentication-ecommerce.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Background: The NCCoE, part of NIST, is a public-private 
collaboration

[[Page 91918]]

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 
Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce Project for the retail 
sector. The full Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce Project 
Description can be viewed at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use_cases/multifactor-authentication-ecommerce.
    Interested parties should contact NIST using the information 
provided in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this notice. 
NIST will then provide each interested party with a letter of interest 
template, which the party must complete, certify that it is accurate, 
and submit to NIST. NIST will contact interested parties if there are 
questions regarding the responsiveness of the letters of interest to 
the Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce Project objective or 
requirements identified below. NIST will select participants who have 
submitted complete 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 Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce Project. 
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.
    Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce Project Objective: The 
goal of this project is to increase the confidence of user identity and 
reduce the risk of fraud in the online, Card-Not-Present (CNP) space by 
implementing multifactor authentication for e-commerce transactions 
along with other security controls. The solution will provide guidance 
for implementing multifactor authentication mechanisms, risk 
calculation, web analytics, and potentially identity federation, in 
retail IT architecture segments that support or interface with e-
commerce transactions such as online shopping or loyalty points 
programs. It will produce an architecture that includes components that 
will integrate multifactor authentication mechanisms (certificate-
based, biometric, or others), risk calculation engines (risk score 
calculation and decisions), web analytics (pertaining to known user 
behavior and/or web threat detection), potentially identity federation 
(which can include authentication and risk information sent from a 
third-party business partner and Identity Provider), and automated 
logging within and between each component.
    A detailed description of the Multifactor Authentication for e-
Commerce Project is available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use_cases/multifactor-authentication-ecommerce.
    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 the High-Level 
Architecture section of the Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce 
Project Description (for reference, please see the link in the Process 
section above) and include, but are not limited to:
     Online/e-commerce shopping cart and payment system (in-
house or outsourced)
     Multifactor authentication mechanisms (types of which to 
be determined)
     Risk calculation platform/engine
     Web analytics engine
     Logging of risk calculation and web analytics data
     Data storage for risk calculation and web analytics data
     Identity federation mechanism (optional)
    Each responding organization's letter of interest should identify 
how their products address one or more of the following desired 
solution characteristics in the High-Level Architecture section of the 
Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce Project Description for the 
retail use case (for reference, please see the link in the Process 
section above):
     Authentication mechanisms that meet business security and 
regulatory requirements
     Automated web analytics including monitoring of user 
behavior and contextual details
     Automated logging of web analytics and risk calculation 
data
     Automated data storage of web analytics and risk 
calculation data
     Ability to establish and enforce risk decisions including 
performing risk calculations
     Automated alerting of suspected fraudulent activity
     Ease of use for the consumer, no substantial increase in 
friction during the e-commerce transaction
     Identity federation (optional)
    Responding organizations need to understand and, in their letters 
of interest, commit to provide:
    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 Multifactor 
Authentication for e-Commerce Project for the retail use case 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)
    Additional details about the Multifactor Authentication for e-
Commerce Project for the retail sector use case are available at: 
https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use_cases/multifactor-authentication-ecommerce. 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 Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce 
Project for the retail sector capability. Prospective participant's 
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

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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 to the retail 
community. 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 
Multifactor Authentication for e-Commerce Project for the retail sector 
use case. These descriptions will be public information.
    Under the terms of the consortium CRADA, 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 Multifactor Authentication 
for e-Commerce Project for the retail sector 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 added 
security and reduced fraud stemming from an increased use of 
multifactor authentication for e-commerce transactions across an entire 
retail sector 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/.

Kevin Kimball,
NIST Chief of Staff.
[FR Doc. 2016-30435 Filed 12-16-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-13-P