Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Guideline for Implementing Cryptography in the Federal Government

Published

Author(s)

Annabelle Lee

Abstract

[Superseded by SP 800-21 Second edition (December 2005): http://www.nist.gov/manuscript-publication-search.cfm?pub_id=150421] The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to Federal agencies on how to select cryptographic controls for protecting Sensitive Unclassified1 information. This document focuses on Federal standards documented in Federal Information Processing Standards Publications (FIPS PUBs) and the cryptographic modules and algorithms that are validated against these standards. However, to provide additional information, other standards organizations, (e.g., American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO)) are briefly discussed.
Citation
Special Publication (NIST SP) - 800-21
Report Number
800-21

Keywords

cryptographic algorithm, cryptographic hash function, cryptographic key, cryptographic module, digital signature, key establishment, key management, message authentication code

Citation

Lee, A. (1999), Guideline for Implementing Cryptography in the Federal Government, Special Publication (NIST SP), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (Accessed October 9, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created November 1, 1999, Updated February 19, 2017