NIST Sets International Standard for Data Encryption Testing

The National Institute of Standards and Technology released the international standard for testing device data encryption, which promises to speed up delivery of technologies from the factory to the U.S. and international markets. NIST announced Tuesday that the Federal Information Processing Standard 140-3 for manufacturers working with the federal government and its international partners. 

“Any product that adheres to the international standard—known as ISO 19790—will therefore use an encryption approach that is acceptable both within and outside the United States,” the agency said. 

NIST noted FIPS 140-3 cuts the redundancy in the process to test and bring a device to the market. It streamlines the recertification process and allows companies to share a single report about the effectiveness of their device’s data encryption to different countries. 

“Testing takes a long time and every day a company spends on it is a day its product is not on the market,” said NIST computer scientist Mike Cooper. “We want to minimize that, because there’s a limited time window before a product becomes obsolete.”