Coalition Letter to NIST

Tags: 2010s Backdoors NIST

Authors: Stepanovich, Amie

Published: November 2014

URL: https://www.accessnow.org/cms/assets/uploads/archive/Coalition-NIST-Nov2014.pdf

Abstract: In November of 2014, a coalition of companies and civil society organizations wrote to the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), President Barack Obama, and Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker to “re-emphasize the importance of creating a process for establishing secure and resilient encryption standards, free from back doors.” The letter was intended to influence the final version of the NIST’s Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Development Process, through a series of policy recommendations. The coalition recommended that, among other things, the NIST prioritize transparency on the identity and affiliation of individuals and organization that consult on the developmental process, maximize outreach and engagement with the public, commit to always provide a security proof for standards and to explain their justification, and extend the principle of Usability to its cryptography work. Moreover, in the wake of public outcry over the agency’s collaboration with the NSA, the coalition recommended NIST “publicly and irrefutability commit itself to independence from the NSA’s signals intelligence mission.”