[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 58 (Monday, March 26, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12940-12941]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-06024]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No. 180306249-8249-01]


National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Energy Sector 
Asset Management

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 Energy Sector Asset 
Management Project. 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 Energy Sector Asset Management use case. 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 April 25, 
2018. When the use case has been completed, NIST will post a notice on 
the NCCoE Energy Sector Asset Management use case website at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/energy-sector/asset-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: Jim McCarthy via email to 
[email protected]; by telephone 301-975-0228; or by mail to 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great 
Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850. Additional details about the 
Energy Sector Asset Management use case are available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/energy-sector.

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). 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 platforms for the Energy Sector 
Asset Management use case. The full use case can be viewed at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/energy-sector/asset-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 a 
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 use case is to provide 
guidance on how energy companies may enhance OT (Operational 
Technology)/ICS (Industrial Controls System) asset management by 
leveraging capabilities that may already exist in an operating 
environment or by implementing new ones. A detailed description of the 
Energy Sector Asset Management use case is available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/energy-sector/asset-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, all components and capabilities must be 
commercially available, and all products must be able to specifically 
address OT/ICS environments in order to be considered for collaboration 
on this project. Components are listed in section 3 of the Energy 
Sector Asset Management use case (for reference, please see the link in 
the PROCESS section above) and include, but are not limited to:

 OT/ICS-specific asset discovery and management tools
 Reliable/secure/encrypted communication devices
 Cybersecurity event/attack detection capability

[[Page 12941]]

 Alerting capability (e.g. Security Information and Event 
Management or SIEM)

    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 Energy Sector Asset 
Management use case (for reference, please see the link in the PROCESS 
section above):

 OT/ICS asset inventory (to include devices using serial 
connections)
 high-speed communication mechanisms for remote asset 
management
 reliable/secure/encrypted communications
 continuous asset monitoring
 log analysis and correlation
 cybersecurity event/attack detection
 patch level information

    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 Energy Sector 
Asset Management use case in NCCoE facilities which will be conducted 
in a manner consistent with the following standards and guidance: NIST 
Special Publications 1800-5 (DRAFT); 1800-7 (DRAFT); 800-40; 800-
53;800-82; 800-160; 800-52; NIST Cybersecurity Framework; NIST 
Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines; ISO/IEC 27001 Information 
security management; and NERC CIP 002-5-014-2.
    Additional details about the Energy Sector Asset Management use 
case are available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/use-cases/energy-sector/asset-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 Energy Sector Asset Management use case. 
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 Energy Sector Asset Management 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 Energy Sector Asset 
Management use case 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 security across the energy 
sector. 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. 2018-06024 Filed 3-23-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-13-P