57938 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 163 / Thursday, August 24, 2023 / Notices 

the following formats: HTML, ASCII, 

Word, RTF, or PDF. 

The Preliminary Update is available 

electronically from the NIST website at: 

IoT Federal Working Group | NIST. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

questions about this notice, contact: 

Barbara Cuthill, U.S. Department of 

Commerce, NIST, MS 2000, 100 Bureau 

Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, 

telephone (301) 975–3273, email 

IoTFWG@nist.gov. Please direct media 

inquiries to NIST’s Public Affairs Office 

at (301) 975–NIST. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 

January, 2020, the Congress enacted the 

William M. (Mac) Thornberry National 

Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 

Year 2021 (Pub. L. 116–283). Section 

9204(b)(5) of this act established the 

Internet of Things Federal Working 

Group (IoTFWG) with NIST as the 

convenor of the working group. The 

specific duties assigned to the IoTFWG 

are: 

Duties.—The working group shall— 

(A) identify any Federal regulations, 

statutes, grant practices, budgetary or 

jurisdictional challenges, and other 

sector-specific policies that are 

inhibiting, or could inhibit, the 

development or deployment of the 

Internet of Things; 

(B) consider policies or programs that 

encourage and improve coordination 

among Federal agencies that have 

responsibilities that are relevant to the 

objectives of this section; 

(C) consider any findings or 

recommendations made by the IoT 

Advisory Board and, where appropriate, 

act to implement those 

recommendations; 

(D) examine— 

(i) how Federal agencies can benefit 

from utilizing the Internet of Things; 

(ii) the use of Internet of Things 

technology by Federal agencies as of the 

date on which the working group 

performs the examination; 

(iii) the preparedness and ability of 

Federal agencies to adopt Internet of 

Things technology as of the date on 

which the working group performs the 

examination and in the future; and 

(iv) any additional security measures 

that Federal agencies may need to take 

to— 

(I) safely and securely use the Internet 

of Things, including measures that 

ensure the security of critical 

infrastructure; and 

(II) enhance the resiliency of Federal 

systems against cyber threats to the 

Internet of Things; and 

(E) in carrying out the examinations 

required under subclauses (I) and (II) of 

subparagraph (D)(iv), ensure to the 

maximum extent possible the 

coordination of the current and future 

activities of the Federal Government 

relating to security with respect to the 

Internet of Things. 

The Preliminary Update as presented, 

is intended to obtain broad comments 

and feedback to help the IoTFWG build 

recommendations for future federal 

actions to encourage the development 

and deployment of the Internet of 

Things. 

Request for Comments 

NIST seeks public comments on the 

Preliminary Update electronically from 

the NIST website at: IoT Federal 

Working Group | NIST. Written 

comments may be submitted by mail to 

Barbara Cuthill, National Institute of 

Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau 

Drive, Stop 2000, Gaithersburg, MD 

20899. Electronic submissions may be 

sent to iotfwg@nist.gov . 

Authority: 15 U.S.C. 272(b), (c), & (e); 

15 U.S.C. 278g–3. 

Alicia Chambers, 

NIST Executive Secretariat. 

[FR Doc. 2023–18251 Filed 8–23–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–13–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology 

[Docket No. 230814–0193] 

Request for Comments on Draft FIPS– 

203, Draft FIPS–204, and Draft FIPS– 

205 

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards 

and Technology (NIST), Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: The National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST) 

requests comments on three draft 

Federal Information Processing 

Standards (FIPS): FIPS 203, ModuleLattice-Based Key-Encapsulation 

Mechanism Standard, FIPS 204, 

Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature 

Standard, and FIPS 205, Stateless Hashbased Digital Signature Standard. These 

proposed standards specify key 

establishment and digital signature 

schemes that are designed to resist 

future attacks by quantum computers, 

which threaten the security of current 

standards. The three algorithms 

specified in these standards are each 

derived from different submissions in 

the NIST post-quantum cryptography 

standardization project (see: https://

csrc.nist.gov/Projects/post-quantumcryptography/post-quantumcryptography-standardization). 

DATES: Comments on FIPS 203, FIPS 

204, or FIPS 205 must be received on or 

before November 22, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: The drafts of FIPS 203, FIPS 

204, and FIPS 205 are available for 

review and comment on the NIST 

Computer Security Resource Center 

website at https://csrc.nist.gov and at 

www.regulations.gov. Comments on 

FIPS 203 may be sent electronically to 

FIPS-203-comments@nist.gov with 

‘‘Comment on FIPS 203’’ in the subject 

line or submitted via 

www.regulations.gov. Comments on 

FIPS 204 may be sent electronically to 

FIPS-204-comments@nist.gov with 

‘‘Comment on FIPS 204’’ in the subject 

line or via www.regulations.gov. 

Comments on FIPS 205 may be sent 

electronically to FIPS-205-comments@

nist.gov with ‘‘Comment on FIPS 205’’ 

in the subject line or via 

www.regulations.gov. Written comments 

may also be submitted by mail to 

Information Technology Laboratory, 

ATTN: FIPS Comments, National 

Institute of Standards and Technology, 

100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8930, 

Gaithersburg, MD 20899–8930. 

All relevant comments received by 

the deadline will be published 

electronically at https://csrc.nist.gov 

and www.regulations.gov without 

change or redaction, so commenters 

should not include information they do 

not wish to be posted (e.g., personal or 

confidential business information). 

Comments that contain profanity, 

vulgarity, threats, or other inappropriate 

language or content will not be posted 

or considered. After the comment 

period closes, NIST will analyze the 

comments, make changes to the 

documents as appropriate, and then 

propose the drafts FIPS 203, FIPS 204, 

and FIPS 205 to the Secretary of 

Commerce for approval. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. 

Dustin Moody, National Institute of 

Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau 

Drive, Mail Stop 8930, Gaithersburg, 

MD 20899–8930, email: Dustin.Moody@

nist.gov, phone: (301) 975–8136. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Over the 

past several years, there has been steady 

progress toward building quantum 

computers. The security of many 

commonly used public-key 

cryptosystems would be at risk if largescale quantum computers were ever 

realized. In particular, this would 

include key-establishment schemes and 

digital signatures that are based on 

integer factorization and discrete 

logarithms (both over finite fields and 

elliptic curves). As a result, in 2017, the 

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology (NIST) initiated a public 


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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 163 / Thursday, August 24, 2023 / Notices 57939 

process to select quantum-resistant 

public-key cryptographic algorithms for 

standardization. These quantumresistant algorithms would augment the 

public-key cryptographic algorithms 

already contained in FIPS 186–5, Digital 

Signature Standard (DSS), as well as 

NIST Special Publication (SP) 800–56A 

Revision 3, Recommendation for PairWise Key-Establishment Schemes Using 

Discrete Logarithm Cryptography, and 

SP 800–56B Revision 2, 

Recommendation for Pair-Wise Key 

Establishment Using Integer 

Factorization Cryptography. 

NIST issued a public call for 

submissions to the Post-Quantum 

Cryptography (PQC) Standardization 

Process in December 2016. Prior to the 

November 2017 deadline, a total of 82 

candidate algorithms were submitted. 

Shortly thereafter, the 69 candidates 

that met both the submission 

requirements and the minimum 

acceptability criteria were accepted into 

the first round of the standardization 

process. Submission packages for the 

first-round candidates were posted 

online for public review and comment. 

After a year-long review of the 

candidates, NIST selected 26 algorithms 

to move on to the second round of 

evaluation in January 2019. These 

algorithms were viewed as the most 

promising candidates for eventual 

standardization, and were selected 

based on both internal analysis and 

public feedback. During the second 

round, there was continued evaluation 

by NIST and the broader cryptographic 

community. After consideration of these 

analyses and other public input 

received throughout the evaluation 

process, NIST selected seven finalists 

and eight alternates to move on to the 

third round in July 2020. 

The third round began in July 2020 

and continued for approximately 18 

months. During the third round, there 

was a more thorough analysis of the 

theoretical and empirical evidence used 

to justify the security of the candidates. 

There was also careful benchmarking of 

their performance using optimized 

implementations on a variety of 

software and hardware platforms. 

Similar to the first two rounds, NIST 

also held the (virtual) Third NIST PQC 

Standardization Conference in June 

2021. NIST summarized its decisions in 

a report at the end of each round; 

NISTIR 8240 for the first round, NISTIR 

8309 for the second round, and NISTIR 

8413 for the third round. These reports 

are available at https://csrc.nist.gov/ 

publications/ir. 

After three rounds of evaluation and 

analysis, NIST selected four algorithms 

it will standardize as a result of the PQC 

Standardization Process. The public-key 

encapsulation mechanism selected was 

CRYSTALS–KYBER, along with three 

digital signature schemes: CRYSTALS– 

Dilithium, FALCON, and SPHINCS+. It 

is intended that these algorithms will be 

capable of protecting sensitive U.S. 

Government information well into the 

foreseeable future, including after the 

advent of quantum computers. 

The draft of FIPS 203 specifies a 

cryptographic scheme called Module 

Learning with errors Key Encapsulation 

Mechanism, or MLWE–KEM, which is 

derived from the CRYSTALS–KYBER 

submission. A Key Encapsulation 

Mechanism (or KEM) is a particular type 

of key establishment scheme which can 

be used to establish a shared secret key 

between two parties communicating 

over a public channel. Current NISTapproved key establishment schemes 

are specified in SP 800–56A 

Recommendation for Pair-Wise KeyEstablishment Schemes Using Discrete 

Logarithm-Based Cryptography and SP 

800–56B, Recommendation for PairWise Key Establishment Schemes Using 

Integer Factorization Cryptography. 

The drafts of FIPS 204 and 205 each 

specify digital signature schemes, which 

are used to detect unauthorized 

modifications to data and to 

authenticate the identity of the 

signatory. FIPS 204 specifies the 

Module Learning with errors Digital 

Signature Algorithm, or ML–DSA, 

which is derived from CRYSTALSDilithium submission. FIPS 205 

specifies the Stateless Hash-based 

Digital Signature Algorithm, or SLH– 

DSA, derived from the SPHINCS+ 

submission. Current NIST-approved 

digital signature schemes are specified 

in FIPS 186–5, Digital Signature 

Standard and SP 800–208, 

Recommendation for Stateful Hashbased Signature Schemes. In the future, 

NIST intends to develop a FIPS 

specifying a digital signature algorithm 

derived from FALCON as an additional 

alternative to these standards. 

Authority: 40 U.S.C. 11331(f), 15 

U.S.C. 278g–3. 

Alicia Chambers, 

NIST Executive Secretariat. 

[FR Doc. 2023–18197 Filed 8–23–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–13–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology 

Proposed Voluntary Product Standard 

PS 1–22, Structural Plywood 

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards 

and Technology, Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of availability; request 

for comments. 

SUMMARY: The National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST) is 

distributing for public comment a 

proposed revision of Voluntary Product 

Standard PS 1–22, Structural Plywood. 

The revisions to the standard were 

prepared by the Standard Review 

Committee and approved by the PS 1 

Standing Committee. PS 1–22 Structural 

Plywood establishes requirements for 

the principal types and grades of 

structural plywood and provides a basis 

for common understanding among 

producers, distributors, and users of the 

product. Interested parties are invited to 

review the proposed standard and 

submit comments to NIST. 

DATES: Written comments regarding the 

proposed revision, PS 1–22 Structural 

Plywood, should be submitted to the 

Standards Coordination Office, NIST, no 

later than September 25, 2023. Written 

comments should be submitted 

according to the instructions in the 

ADDRESSES section below. Submissions 

received after that date may not be 

considered. 

ADDRESSES: An electronic copy (an 

Adobe Acrobat File) of the proposed 

standard, PS 1–22, Structural Plywood, 

can be obtained at the following website 

https://www.nist.gov/standardsgov/ 

voluntary-product-standards-program. 

This site also includes an electronic 

copy of PS 1–19 (the existing standard) 

and a summary of significant changes. 

Written comments on the proposed 

revision should be submitted to 

Nathalie Rioux, Standards Coordination 

Office, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 

2100, Gaithersburg, MD 20899–2100. 

Electronic comments may be submitted 

to nrioux@nist.gov. 

Instructions: Attachments will be 

accepted in plain text, Microsoft Word, 

or Adobe PDF formats. Comments 

containing references, studies, research, 

and other empirical data that are not 

widely published should include copies 

or electronic links of the referenced 

materials. 

All submissions, including 

attachments and other supporting 

materials, will become part of the public 

record and subject to public disclosure. 

All comments responding to this 


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