An exciting lineup of key speakers and discussion tracks highlight the first International Common Criteria Conference, co-sponsored by the National Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, to be held May 23-25 at the Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland. This first-ever conference will bring together government, academic, and industry representatives from around the world to learn more about this new international standard and how it can be effectively used to help build more secure information systems and technologies worldwide.
Four conference discussion tracks are geared toward providing attendees, from novices to policy makers to evaluation experts, with the most up-to-date, accurate, and complete information on the Common Criteria process. In addition, two senior industry representatives will discuss their views on IT security and the need for certified products. Mr. Lance Johnson, the Senior Vice President for Security at VISA International, Inc., will present the Keynote Address on May 23. The Banquet Address will by given on May 24 by Mr. Doug Bayer, the Director of Windows NT Security at Microsoft.
The Common Criteria became an international standard, ISO Standard 15408, in Spring 1999. The standard specifies a common language for consumers to convey their IT security requirements to IT product developers and a common evaluation criteria to assess what the developers have produced. This evaluation criteria has led to an arrangement wherein participating countries will honor the IT security evaluations performed by each country. Representatives from the participating countries, as well as their national implementation scheme administrators, accredited commercial testing laboratories, producers and consumers of information technology products, acquisition authorities and information assurance professionals are expected to attend the conference.
In the United States, private laboratories accredited by the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) conduct the Common Criteria-based product evaluations. The NIAP is a partnership between the NIST and NSA to enhance the quality of information security products and increase confidence in those products that have been evaluated objectively.
For additional information or to register for this Conference, call 301-975-4513, or visit the Conference web site at http://niap.nist.gov/iccc.