Collaborations in Internet Security (CIS)
In recognition of the need for heightened security awareness and security capabilities on the Internet, the Federal Networking Council's (FNC) Privacy & Security Working Group (PSWG) has been awarded a National Performance Review (NPR) Innovation Fund grant to coordinate multiagency Security Testbeds.
The $500,000 grant is aimed at promoting multiagency collaborations in the security arena. Eight agencies are participating directly, including the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Defense/Army Research Lab (DoD/ARL), the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Communications System (NCS), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Other Federal entities will be engaged indirectly through FNC outreach efforts. Participation in this pilot effort will be open to the academic and private sectors (both software and hardware vendors), including members of various communities such as the Internet Society (ISOC), the Internet Engineering Taskforce (IETF), and the Federal Networking Council Advisory Committee (FNCAC).
The governing principles behind the Security Testbeds include: employment of an open process (with the activities and results open to participation and comment by both public and private sector participants); a focus on multivendor technologies; an emphasis on testing and experimentally deploying security technologies emerging from research and private sectors as well as security technologies currently in use in the commercial environment; and an underlying objective to ensure interoperability among the broad Internet community (federal, private, and academic). Initial tests will include demonstrations of Kerberos v. 5, testing of single-use passwords, and digital signatures.
The effort will also include development of a laboratory accreditation program for testing and certifying Internet security software and systems. This process will be modeled on NIST's National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program, which tests and accredits systems and products for private sector and federal users.
The FNC is tasked with bridging the gap between the advanced networking technologies being developed by research FNC agencies and the ultimate acquisition of mature versions of these technologies from the commercial sector. The FNC supports the goals of the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on Information and Communications (CIC), particularly those related to building the national information infrastructure (NII), and works in collaboration with the High Performance Computing and Communications' Information Technology Committee (HPCCIT). The proposed collection of integrated security testbeds will be coordinated through the PSWG and the FNC's Engineering and Operations Working Group (EOWG). A subgroup of the Federal Engineering Planning Group (FEPG) will provide technical review and support throughout the effort.
Steve Squires (ARPA) and Dennis Steinauer (NIST), co-chairs of the PSWG, are the Project Leaders for this effort. Phil Dykstra, Army Research Laboratory (ARL), will serve as the Technical Lead. Individuals interested in participating in this effort should contact the FNC at execdir@fnc.gov.
Last modified on February 13, 1996
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