§7406 — Title 15 Commerce and Trade | U.S. Code

Summary

The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology must create and update automated security standards, guides (including protocols), and checklists. These will give recommended settings and options that reduce security risks for computer hardware, software, and security tools that are or may become widely used by the federal government. The goal is to make technologies and monitoring work together across agencies. NIST must decide which items to work on first based on things like security risk, how many agencies use a system, how useful the guidance is, and how well it helps continuous security monitoring. NIST can skip systems that are rarely used, obsolete, or too impractical to standardize. NIST must tell federal agencies when a new standard, guide, or checklist is available. Creating these items does not force agencies to use the recommended settings, set buying rules, mean NIST endorses a product, or stop agencies from buying systems that do not have such guidance. When an agency uses a system that has a NIST checklist, the agency must explain in its agencywide security plan how it considered that checklist. The agency may count that explanation as part of its annual performance plan if it is classified under Executive Order rules. This explanation rule does not apply to systems for which NIST has no legal responsibility.

Title 15, §7406

Commerce and Trade — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)

(c)(1)The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall, as necessary, develop and revise security automation standards, associated reference materials (including protocols), and checklists providing settings and option selections that minimize the security risks associated with each information technology hardware or software system and security tool that is, or is likely to become, widely used within the Federal Government, thereby enabling standardized and interoperable technologies, architectures, and frameworks for continuous monitoring of information security within the Federal Government.

(2)The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall establish priorities for the development of standards, reference materials, and checklists under this subsection on the basis of—

(A)the security risks associated with the use of the system;

(B)the number of agencies that use a particular system or security tool;

(C)the usefulness of the standards, reference materials, or checklists to Federal agencies that are users or potential users of the system;

(D)the effectiveness of the associated standard, reference material, or checklist in creating or enabling continuous monitoring of information security; or

(E)such other factors as the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology determines to be appropriate.

(3)The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology may exclude from the application of paragraph (1) any information technology hardware or software system or security tool for which such Director determines that the development of a standard, reference material, or checklist is inappropriate because of the infrequency of use of the system, the obsolescence of the system, or the lack of utility or impracticability of developing a standard, reference material, or checklist for the system.

(4)The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall ensure that Federal agencies are informed of the availability of any standard, reference material, checklist, or other item developed under this subsection.

(5)The development of standards, reference materials, and checklists under paragraph (1) for an information technology hardware or software system or tool does not—

(A)require any Federal agency to select the specific settings or options recommended by the standard, reference material, or checklist for the system;

(B)establish conditions or prerequisites for Federal agency procurement or deployment of any such system;

(C)imply an endorsement of any such system by the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology; or

(D)preclude any Federal agency from procuring or deploying other information technology hardware or software systems for which no such standard, reference material, or checklist has been developed or identified under paragraph (1).

(d)(1)In developing the agencywide information security program required by section 3554(b) of title 44, an agency that deploys a computer hardware or software system for which the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed a checklist under subsection (c) of this section—

(A)shall include in that program an explanation of how the agency has considered such checklist in deploying that system; and

(B)may treat the explanation as if it were a portion of the agency’s annual performance plan properly classified under criteria established by an Executive Order (within the meaning of section 1115(d) of title 31).

(2)Paragraph (1) does not apply to any computer hardware or software system for which the National Institute of Standards and Technology does not have responsibility under section 278g–3(a)(3) of this title.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section is comprised of section 8 of Pub. L. 107–305. Subsec. (a) of section 8 of Pub. L. 107–305 enacted section 278h of this title and renumbered former section 278h of this title as section 278q of this title. Subsec. (b) of section 8 of Pub. L. 107–305 amended section 278g–3 of this title.

Amendments

2014—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 113–274 amended subsec. (c) generally. Prior to amendment, text related to checklists setting forth settings and option selections that minimize the security risks associated with computer hardware or software systems likely to become widely used within the Federal Government. Subsec. (d)(1). Pub. L. 113–283, which directed amendment of section 8 of the Cybersecurity Research and Development Act by substituting “section 3554” for “section 3534” in subsec. (d)(1), was executed to this section, which is section 8 of the Cyber Security Research and Development Act, to reflect the probable intent of Congress.

§7406 National Institute of Standards and Technology Programs

Summary

Title 15, §7406

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

Citations & Metadata