[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 247 (Wednesday, December 27, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61257-61258]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-27869]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No. 171205999-7999-01]


National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Privileged 
Account Management for the Financial Services 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 Privileged Account 
Management for the Financial Services 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 Financial Services 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 January 26, 
2018. When the use case has been completed, NIST will post a notice on 
the NCCoE Financial Services sector program website at https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/privileged-account-management 
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: James Banoczi via email to 
[email protected]; by telephone 301-975-0200; or by mail to 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great 
Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850. Additional details about the 
Financial Services sector program are available at https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/privileged-account-management.

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 
Privileged Account Management for the Financial Services Sector. The 
full use case can be viewed at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/privileged-account-management.
    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 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: Privileged Account Management (PAM) is a domain 
within Identity and Access Management (IdAM) that focuses on monitoring 
and controlling the use of privileged accounts. Privileged accounts are 
the IT system accounts that include local and domain administrative 
accounts, emergency accounts, application management, and service 
accounts. These powerful accounts provide elevated, often nonrestricted 
access to the underlying IT resources

[[Page 61258]]

and technology, which is why attackers or malicious insiders seek to 
gain access to them. Hence, it is critical to monitor, audit, control, 
and manage privileged account usage. Many organizations, including 
financial sector companies, face challenges managing privileged 
accounts. To address these challenges, the National Cybersecurity 
Center of Excellence (NCCoE) plans to demonstrate a PAM capability that 
effectively protects, monitors, and manages privileged account access. 
The project addresses privileged account life cycle management, 
authentication, authorization, auditing, and access controls.
    A detailed description of the Privileged Account Management is 
available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/privileged-account-management.
    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 
Privileged Account Management for the Financial Services sector use 
case (for reference, please see the link in the PROCESS section above) 
and include, but are not limited to:

 Privileged account control
 Privileged account command filtering (allow or deny specific 
comments, such as disk formatting)
 Multifactor authentication capability
 Access logging/database system
 Password management
 Separation of duties management
 Support least privileged policies
 Password obfuscation (hiding passwords from PAM users)
 Temporary accounts
 Log management (analytics, storage, alerting)

    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 Privileged Account 
Management for the Financial Services sector use case (for reference, 
please see the link in the PROCESS section above):
    1. Is easy to use for both PAM system administrators and PAM system 
users.
    2. Provides protection for data at rest and data in transit.
    3. Is complementary to existing access management.
    4. Integrates with directories.
    5. Provides account use control (policy enforcement and decision 
making).
    6. Provides system command control.
    7. Counters password obfuscation (hidden passwords).
    8. Supports password management (vaults, changes, storage).
    9. Supports activity logging (textual and video).
    10. Supports real time activity monitoring.
    11. Includes support functions needed by the typical user.
    12. Supports privilege escalation management.
    13. Supports forensic investigation data management.
    14. Provides support for workflow management.
    15. Enables emergency (break glass) scenario support.
    16. Includes policy management support.
    17. Supports single sign-on.
    18. Permits system and privileged account discovery.
    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 Privileged 
Account Management for the Financial Services sector use case in NCCoE 
facilities which will be conducted in a manner consistent with the 
following standards and guidance: FIPS 140-2, FIPS 199, FIPS 200, FIPS 
201, SP 800-53, and SP 800-63.
    Additional details about the Privileged Account Management for the 
Financial Services sector use case are available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/privileged-account-management.
    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 Privileged Account Management for the 
Financial Services 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 
Financial Services 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 
Privileged Account Management for the Financial Services 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 Privileged Account Management 
for the Financial Services sector capability will be announced on the 
NCCoE website at least two weeks in advance at http://nccoe.nist.gov/. 
The expected outcome of the demonstration is to improve privileged 
account management across an entire Financial Services 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 website 
http://nccoe.nist.gov/.

Kevin Kimball,
NIST Chief of Staff.
[FR Doc. 2017-27869 Filed 12-26-17; 8:45 am]
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