NIST Seeks Input on Trusted Identities Guidance

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The draft guidance was previously edited for four months on GitHub.

The government’s research agency for digital security is releasing the latest draft of its digital authentication guidelines for public comment.

The draft guidance from the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology essentially focuses on best practices for ensuring people and machines are who they say they are online.

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The draft guidance, which goes by the technical name “SP 800-63-3: Digital Identity Guidelines,” already spent four months on the code sharing site GitHub where coders and others were able to suggest edits. The current draft has been updated to reflect those suggestions and will be available for more a more formal public comment period through March 31, according to a NIST blog post.

The first draft of the trusted identities guidance dates back to 2004 and has been updated twice, most recently in 2013. NIST is updating it now in response to changes in technological development, cyber threats and federal cybersecurity requirements, according to an information sheet.

NIST will host a webinar Feb. 7 to describe updates made to the draft guidance over the summer.