NIST SP 800-90A

NIST SP 800-90A ("SP" stands for "special publication") is a publication by the National Institute of Standards and Technology with the title Recommendation for Random Number Generation Using Deterministic Random Bit Generators. The publication contains the specification for four cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generators for use in cryptography: Hash_DRBG (based on hash functions), HMAC_DRBG (Based on Hash-based message authentication code), CTR_DRBG (based on block ciphers), and Dual_EC_DRBG (based on elliptic curve cryptography). The Dual_EC_DRBG RNG was later reported to probably contain a backdoor inserted by the National Security Agency, while the other three random number generators are still considered secure.

As a work of the US Federal Government, NIST SP 800-90A is in the public domain and freely available. However, the version now available [17 Feb 2014] under the original SP 800-90A designation is actually an externally unlabelled version dated internally as January 2012. The updating changes need to be compared to the actual original document. [Needed: a validated link or reference citation to the original version of March 2007.]

National Institute of Standards and Technology

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), is a measurement standards laboratory, also known as a National Metrological Institute (NMI), which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce. The institute's official mission is to:

NIST had an operating budget for fiscal year 2007 (October 1, 2006-September 30, 2007) of about $843.3 million. NIST's 2009 budget was $992 million, and it also received $610 million as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NIST employs about 2,900 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support and administrative personnel. About 1,800 NIST associates (guest researchers and engineers from American companies and foreign countries) complement the staff. In addition, NIST partners with 1,400 manufacturing specialists and staff at nearly 350 affiliated centers around the country. NIST publishes the Handbook 44 that provides the "Specifications, tolerances, and other technical requirements for weighing and measuring devices".

NIST-7

NIST-7 was the atomic clock used by the United States from 1993 to 1999. It was on of a series of Atomic Clocks at the National Institute of Standers and Technology. The caesium beam clock served as the nation's primary time and frequency standard during that time period, but it has since been replaced with the more accurate NIST-F1, a caesium fountain atomic clock that neither gains nor loses one second in 100 million years.

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NIST (disambiguation)

NIST may refer to: