NIST prepping security guides

Source: FCW.com

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's security team will be releasing more than 30 guides over the coming year to help agencies with many crucial technical and policy security concerns, officials said last week.

The NIST Computer Security Resource Center released four draft guides for comment during the past two months, addressing telecommuting security, information technology contingency plans, securely connecting IT systems, and using common definitions for security vulnerabilities. Under the Computer Security Act of 1987, NIST serves as the primary technical resource for civilian agencies.

But those four guides are only the beginning of what will be a very busy year for the center and its contractors. In fiscal 2002, they plan to release almost three times the usual number of guides, said Tim Grance, manager of the systems and network security group.