[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 225 (Friday, November 24, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55802-55804]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-25427]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No. 171010985-7985-01]


National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Securing 
Property Management Systems for the Hospitality 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 Securing Property 
Management Systems for the Hospitality 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 Hospitality Sector 
program. Participation in the use case 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 December 26, 
2017. When the use case has been completed, NIST will post a notice on 
the NCCoE Hospitality Sector program Web site at https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/securing-property-management-systems 
announcing the completion of the use case and informing the public that 
it will no longer accept letters of interest for this use case.

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 consortium Cooperative 
Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with NIST. An NCCoE 
consortium CRADA template can be found at: http://nccoe.nist.gov/node/138.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 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 
Hospitality Sector program are available at https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/securing-property-management-systems.

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 
Securing Property Management Systems for the Hospitality Sector. The 
full use case can be viewed at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/securing-property-management-systems.
    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

[[Page 55803]]

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 use case 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 
use case. 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.
    Use Case Objective: The objective of this project is to help the 
hospitality industry implement stronger security measures and reduce 
vulnerabilities within and around their Property Management Systems 
(PMS), with a focus on the connection to a point-of-sale (POS) system. 
The project will identify typical hotel IT infrastructures and PMS-POS 
configurations, systems, and components that integrate or interface 
with both applications. The project will also identify interactions 
between PMS operators and authorized third-party service provider (SP) 
systems (e.g., online booking, customer relationship marketing 
partners, etc.). This project will result in a NIST Cybersecurity 
Practice Guide--a publicly available description of the solution and 
practical steps needed to effectively secure property management 
systems. A detailed description of the Securing Property Management 
Systems Use Case is available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/securing-property-management-systems.
    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 3 of the 
Securing Property Management Systems Project Description for the 
Hospitality Sector (for reference, please see the link in the PROCESS 
section above) and include, but are not limited to:

 PMS and POS system(s)
 Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE)
 Data tokenization
 Multifactor authentication mechanism
 Access control platform
 User behavior analytics
 Network analytics
 Data logging
 Data storage
 Virtualization

    Each responding organization's letter of interest should identify 
how their products address one or more of the following desired 
solution characteristics in section 3 of the Securing Property 
Management Systems for the Hospitality Sector (for reference, please 
see the link in the PROCESS section above):
    1. Auditing, analytics and response capabilities such as:

 Complete, near real-time auditing and reporting of activity, 
including:
    [cir] User behavior analytics
    [cir] Unauthorized access
    [cir] Unauthorized user behavior
    [cir] Network analytics
    [cir] Access requests and decisions
 Automated detection and/or response to incidents
 Continuous monitoring and retention of information on 
component interactions
 Continuous monitoring and retention of network events

    2. System Protection and Authentication capabilities with 
enforcement such as:

 Access control for internal and third-party users, including:
    [cir] Access control policy creation
    [cir] Determination of access control decisions based on policies
    [cir] Access control policy enforcement
 Multifactor Authentication for remote and third-party access
 Adherence to principles of segmentation and zero-trust, 
including:
    [cir] Multiple trust zones and logical trust boundaries
    [cir] Network segmentation gateways
    [cir] Network virtualization platform and micro-segmentation

    3. Data Protection and Encryption capabilities to prevent damage to 
PCI/PII confidentiality, as well as the confidentiality and integrity 
of system data such as:

 Point-to-point encryption (P2PE)
 Limited/no storing/processing/transmission of payment card 
data
 Secure data tokenization and token management capabilities, 
including:
    [cir] Token generation
    [cir] Token mapping
    [cir] Cryptographic key management
 Utilization of a non-PCI, sensitive consumer secure data vault
 Prevention of damage to PCI/PII confidentiality
 Prevention of damage to PMS functionality and security, and 
improved mitigation of cybersecurity risks
 Secure Payment Terminal
 Payment Information Proxy service

    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 Securing 
Property Management Systems for the Hospitality Sector in NCCoE 
facilities, which will be conducted in a manner consistent with the 
following standards and guidance: FIPS 140-2, FIPS 200, FIPS 201, SP 
800-53, SP 800-63-3, and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard 
(PCI-DSS).
    Additional details about the Securing Property Management Systems 
for the Hospitality Sector use case are available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/securing-property-management-systems.
    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 Securing Property Management Systems for the 
Hospitality Sector capability. 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 to the Hospitality 
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 
Securing Property Management Systems for the Hospitality

[[Page 55804]]

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 Securing Property Management 
Systems for the Hospitality 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 to improve Securing 
Property Management Systems across an entire Hospitality 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. 2017-25427 Filed 11-22-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-13-P