[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 82 (Friday, April 27, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18504-18506]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-08829]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No.: 180301235-8235-01]


National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Data 
Integrity Building Block

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

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
invites organizations to provide products and technical expertise to 
support and demonstrate security platforms for two data integrity 
projects within the Data Integrity Building Block. The two projects are 
(1) Data

[[Page 18505]]

Integrity: Identifying and Protecting Assets Against Ransomware and 
Other Destructive Events and (2) Data Integrity: Detecting and 
Responding to Ransomware and Other Destructive Events. 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 Data Integrity Building 
Block. Participation in the building block is open to all interested 
organizations and organizations may participate in one or both data 
integrity projects.

DATES: 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 May 
29, 2018.

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 separate consortium Cooperative Research 
and Development Agreement (CRADA) with NIST for each Data Integrity 
Building Block project. An NCCoE consortium CRADA template can be found 
at: http://nccoe.nist.gov/node/138.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Timothy McBride via email to 
[email protected]; by telephone 301-975-0214; or by mail to 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great 
Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850. Additional details about the Data 
Integrity Building Block are available at https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/data-integrity.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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. Parties interested in participating in both data 
integrity projects must submit a separate letter of interest for each 
data integrity project. When the building block has been completed, 
NIST will post a notice announcing the completion of the building block 
and informing the public that it will no longer accept letters of 
interest for this building block on the NCCoE Data Integrity Building 
Block website at https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/data-integrity/identify-protect for Data Integrity: Identifying and 
Protecting Assets Against Ransomware and Other Destructive Events, and 
at https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/data-integrity/detect-respond for Data Integrity: Detecting and Responding to 
Ransomware and Other Destructive Events.
    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 Data 
Integrity Building Block. The full building block can be viewed at: 
https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/data-integrity.
    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 building block 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 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.
    Building Block Objective: Establish tools and procedures to defend, 
detect, and respond to data integrity events.
    A detailed description of the Data Integrity Building Block is 
available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/data-integrity.
    Requirements: Each responding organization's letter of interest 
should identify which security platform component(s) or capability(ies) 
it is offering. Responding organizations must submit a separate letter 
of interest and sign a separate consortium CRADA for each project the 
responding organization is interested in joining. 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 each of the data integrity projects (1) Data Integrity: 
Identifying and Protecting Assets Against Ransomware and Other 
Destructive Events, and (2) Data Integrity: Detecting and Responding to 
Ransomware and Other Destructive Events (for reference, please see the 
link in the PROCESS section above) and include, but are not limited to:

 For Data Integrity: Identifying and Protecting Assets Against 
Ransomware and Other Destructive Events:
     Secure storage
     File integrity checking mechanisms backup capability for 
databases, VMs, and file systems
     Vulnerability management and identification software
     Signature based vulnerability detection
     Behavior based vulnerability detection
     Zero-day vulnerability detection
     Log collection software
     Asset inventory software
     Asset management
     Asset discovery
     Maintenance software (including software versioning and 
distribution technology)
     Software versioning
     Software distribution
     Update verification
 For Data Integrity: Detecting and Responding to Ransomware and 
Other Destructive Events
     Integrity monitoring
     Event detection
     Malicious software detection

[[Page 18506]]

     Unauthorized activity detection
     Anomalous activity detection
     Logging and data correlation software
     Reporting capability
     Vulnerability management
     Forensics/analytics tools
     Mitigation and containment software
    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 each of the Data Integrity 
projects (1) Data Integrity: Identifying and Protecting Assets Against 
Ransomware and Other Destructive Events, and (2) Data Integrity: 
Detecting and Responding to Ransomware and Other Destructive Events 
(for reference, please see the link in the PROCESS section above):

1 For Data Integrity: Identifying and Protecting Assets Against 
Ransomware and Other Destructive Events:
     Inventory assets both part of the enterprise and the 
solution itself
     Be secure against integrity attacks against hosts
     Be secure against integrity attacks that occur on the 
network
     Support secure backups
     Provide protected network and remote access
     Provide audit capabilities
2 For Data Integrity: Detecting and Responding to Ransomware and Other 
Destructive Events:
     Detect unauthorized or malicious activity on the network
     Detect unauthorized or malicious mobile code (such as web 
technologies like JavaScript, VBScript, and other code executed but 
loaded from an external site)
     Detect unauthorized or malicious executables
     Detect unauthorized or malicious behavior
     Report unauthorized or malicious activity on the network
     Report unauthorized or malicious mobile code events
     Report unauthorized or malicious executables
     Report unauthorized or malicious behavior
     Analyze the impact of unauthorized or malicious activity 
on the network
     Analyze the impact of unauthorized or malicious mobile 
code events
     Analyze the impact of unauthorized or malicious 
executables
     Analyze the impact of unauthorized or malicious behavior
     Mitigate the impact of unauthorized or malicious activity 
on the network
     Mitigate the impact of unauthorized or malicious mobile 
code events
     Mitigate the impact of unauthorized or malicious 
executables
     Mitigate the impact of unauthorized or malicious behavior
     Contain unauthorized or malicious activity on the network
     Contain unauthorized or malicious mobile code events
     Contain unauthorized or malicious executables
     Contain unauthorized or malicious behavior

    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 Data Integrity 
Building Block in NCCoE facilities which will be conducted in a manner 
consistent with the following standards and guidance: FIPS 200, FIPS 
201 (for the Data Integrity: Identifying and Protecting Assets Against 
Ransomware and Other Destructive Events Project), SP 800-53, FIPS 140-
2, SP 800-37, SP 800-57, SP 800-61, SP 800-83, SP 800-150, SP 800-160, 
and SP 800-184.

    Additional details about the Data Integrity Building Block are 
available at: https://nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/data-integrity.
    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 Data Integrity 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 Data 
Integrity Building Block. 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 Data Integrity Building Block 
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 data integrity 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 website 
http://nccoe.nist.gov/.

Kevin A. Kimball,
Chief of Staff.
[FR Doc. 2018-08829 Filed 4-26-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-13-P