Standards & Certifications

Secure emerging technologies and empower U.S. industry to shape the global technology markets.

Standards

NSA’s Center for Cybersecurity Standards supports collaboration with industry to ensure strong U.S. Government cybersecurity requirements are included in standards for a more secure future. These standards enable interoperable IT solutions and mitigate security challenges across the globe.

NSA plays a critically important role in standards, as NSA has a vested interest in standards that impact our nation’s most sensitive systems and the warfighter. NSA also has decades of deep technical expertise required to draft strong standards.

Securing Emerging Technologies

Securing Emerging Technologies

U.S. participation in standards secures emerging technologies and empowers U.S. industry to lead in global technology markets, benefiting national security and tangentially benefiting the U.S. economy. Technology inherently carries with it the value systems of its creators; our adversaries are very active in these bodies.

WE MUST BE AS WELL.

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NSA Cybersecurity tracks development across standards organizations and collaborates with industry and government in these lines of efforts. NSA prioritizes standards that support:

  • 5G Security: We secure next generation mobile infrastructure through participation in standards development.
  • Cloud & Network Defense: We collaborate with vendors to secure cloud networks and to automate network risk assessment and mitigation to address vulnerabilities and weaknesses in cloud and information sharing platforms.
  • Cryptographic Algorithms: We develop and maintain a set of standardized commercial cryptographic primitives to support current requirements and protect future environments from emerging threats, such as quantum computing.
  • Security Protocols: We protect network communications by working with standards organizations to ensure that a robust set of cryptographic protocols are incorporated into commercial products.
  • Emerging Technologies: We stay ahead of the curve in standardizing emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Internet of Things, and Smart Cities.
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Certifications

NSA’s National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) partners with public and private sectors to evaluate commercial technologies for use in National Security Systems (NSS). NIAP is responsible for:

  • Overseeing the evaluation of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) IT products for use in NSS
  • Developing vendor-agnostic profiles that define the security functional requirements and assurance activities against which COTS IT products are evaluated
  • Serving as the U.S. representative to the International Common Criteria Recognition Agreement (CCRA)

For more information about NIAP, visit www.niap-ccevs.org.