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The National Institute of Standards and Technology is in the process of selecting one or more public-key cryptographic algorithms through a public competition-like process. The new public-key cryptography standards will specify one or more additional digital signature, public-key encryption, and key-establishment algorithms to augment FIPS 186-4, Digital Signature Standard (DSS), as well as special publications SP 800-56A Revision 2, Recommendation for Pair-Wise Key Establishment Schemes Using Discrete Logarithm Cryptography, and SP 800-56B, Recommendation for Pair-Wise Key-Establishment Schemes Using Integer Factorization. It is intended that these algorithms will be capable of protecting sensitive information well into the foreseeable future, including after the advent of quantum computers.
Cryptography is an essential component of modern computing. Unfortunately, implementing cryptography correctly is a non-trivial undertaking. Past research studies have supported this observation by revealing a multitude of errors and pitfalls in the cryptographic implementations of software products. However, the emphasis of these studies was on the practices of less-experienced, individual developers. Therefore, there is little understanding of the cryptographic development practices of organizations, including the benefits and challenges of using cryptographic resources such as standards specifications and libraries. To address this gap, a research team led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Information Technology Laboratory Visualization and Usability Group conducted a qualitative investigation into the processes and resources that organizations employ in the development and testing of cryptographic products.
We propose a general methodology for assessing the time accuracy and uncertainties, and report results from a project to calibrate timing in the NIST Cyber-Physical System (CPS) and Smart Grid Testbeds. We measured clock synchronization accuracy and stability as well as latencies for potential experiments in the testbeds.
The definition of ‘kind of quantity’ given in the International Vocabulary of Metrology(VIM), 3rd edition, does not cover the historical meaning of the term as it is most commonly used in metrology. Most of its historical meaning has been merged into ‘quantity,’ which is polysemic across two layers of abstraction. I propose a model of ‘kind of quantity’ that is compatible with its historical meaning and distinguishable from ‘quantity in a general sense.'
Externally-launched computer worms which maliciously propagate within networks are one of the most serious and dangerous security threats facing the commercial, political, military, and research communities today. With an eye to the ultimate goal of detection and prevention of such worms, the purpose of this paper is twofold: to develop predictive models for the number of infected hosts per iteration and the number of iterations to saturation, and to present a systematic methodology (simulator construction + data generation + 2 sequential fitting steps) for the construction of such models. This methodology will have application across a variety of worm-modeling scenarios.
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