[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 166 (Tuesday, August 29, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59506-59508]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-18591]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No.: 230816-0196]


National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Accelerate 
Adoption of Digital Identities on Mobile Devices

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of 
Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 
invites organizations to provide letters of interest describing 
technical expertise and products to support and demonstrate 
International Organization for Standardization/International 
Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 18013-5 and ISO/IEC 18013-7 
standards capabilities for the Accelerate Adoption of Digital 
Identities on Mobile Devices project. This notice is the initial step 
for the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) in 
collaborating with technology companies to address cybersecurity 
challenges identified under the Accelerate Adoption of Digital 
Identities on Mobile Devices project. Participation in the project is 
open to all interested organizations.

DATES: Collaborative activities will commence as soon as enough 
completed and signed letters of interest have been returned to address 
all the necessary components and capabilities, but no earlier than 
September 28, 2023.

ADDRESSES: The NCCoE is located at 9700 Great Seneca Highway, 
Rockville, MD 20850. Letters of interest must be submitted to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#65080109480b06060a00250b0c16114b020a13"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="d3beb7bffebdb0b0bcb693bdbaa0a7fdb4bca5">[email protected]</span></a> or via hardcopy to National Institute of Standards and 
Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850. 
Interested parties can access the letter of interest request by 
visiting https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/digital-identities-mdl and 
completing the letter of interest webform. NIST will announce the 
completion of the selection of participants and inform the public that 
it is no longer accepting letters of interest for this project at 
https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/digital-identities-mdl. 
Organizations whose letters of interest are accepted in accordance with 
the process set forth in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this 
notice will be asked to sign an NCCoE consortium Cooperative Research 
and Development Agreement (CRADA) with NIST. An NCCoE consortium CRADA 
template can be found at: https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/publications/other/nccoe-consortium-crada-example.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ketan Mehta via email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#2a474e4607444949454f6a4443595e044d455c"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="81ece5edacefe2e2eee4c1efe8f2f5afe6eef7">[email protected]</span></a>; by phone at (301) 975-8405; or by mail to National 
Institute of Standards and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great Seneca 
Highway, Rockville, MD 20850. Additional details about the Accelerate 
Adoption of Digital Identities on Mobile Devices project are available 
at https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/digital-identities-mdl.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Background: The NCCoE, part of NIST, is a public-private 
collaboration for accelerating the widespread adoption of integrated 
cybersecurity tools and technologies. The NCCoE brings together experts 
from industry, government, and academia under one roof to develop 
practical, interoperable cybersecurity approaches that address the 
real-world needs of complex Information Technology (IT) and Operational 
Technology (OT) systems. By accelerating dissemination and use of these 
integrated tools and technologies for protecting IT and OT assets, the 
NCCoE will enhance trust in U.S. IT and OT communications, data, and 
storage systems; reduce risk for companies and individuals using IT and 
OT systems; and encourage development of innovative, job-creating 
cybersecurity products and services.
    Process: NIST is soliciting responses from all sources of relevant 
security capabilities (see below) to enter into an NCCoE Cooperative 
Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to provide technical 
expertise and products to support and demonstrate ISO/IEC 18013-5 and 
ISO/IEC 18013-7 standards capabilities for the Accelerate Adoption of 
Digital Identities on Mobile Devices project. The full project can be 
viewed at: https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/digital-identities-mdl.
    Interested parties can access the request for a letter of interest 
template by visiting the project website at https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/digital-identities-mdl and completing the letter of interest 
webform. On completion of the webform, interested parties will receive 
access to the letter of interest template, which the party must 
complete, certify as accurate, and submit to NIST by email or hardcopy. 
NIST will contact interested parties if there are questions regarding 
the responsiveness of the letters of interest to the project objective 
or requirements identified below. NIST will select participants who 
have submitted

[[Page 59507]]

complete letters of interest on a first come, first served basis. The 
selection of participants who are Verifiers (aka, Relying Parties) will 
also be on a first come, first served basis; however, NIST will only 
select up to two Verifiers per transaction type. There are five 
transaction types which are described in Section 4 of the project 
description. Moreover, NIST may give preference to Verifiers that 
propose use of mobile driver's license (mDL) as well as other 
documents. Participants who are Verifiers may submit multiple use 
cases. Organizations may partner to propose a single use case; however, 
each organization must submit a letter of interest. There may be 
continuing opportunity to participate even after initial activity 
commences for participants who were not selected initially or have 
submitted the letter of interest after the selection process. When the 
project has been completed, NIST will post a notice on the Accelerate 
Adoption of Digital Identities on Mobile Devices project website at 
https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/digital-identities-mdl announcing 
the next phase of the project and informing the public that it will no 
longer accept letters of interest for this project. Selected 
participants will be required to enter into an NCCoE consortium CRADA 
with NIST (for reference, see ADDRESSES section above).
    Project Objective: Digital identities are supplementing and 
supplanting traditional physical identity cards. Customers, consumers 
of services, law enforcement, vendors, suppliers, businesses, and 
health care entities may require a method of verifying a person via a 
mobile device. If these digital identities on mobile devices are to 
meet the demands of varying use cases, there must be technological 
interoperability, security, and cross-domain trust. The nascent nature 
of this technology leaves many challenges to be addressed, including 
but not limited to:
    <bullet> Lack of guidance and governance for identities on devices.
    <bullet> Limited capability to evaluate and validate compliant, 
standards-based deployments.
    <bullet> Limited understanding of the privacy and usability 
considerations.
    The goal of this project is to define and facilitate a reference 
architecture(s) for digital identities that protects privacy, is 
implemented in a secure way, enables equity, is widely adoptable, 
interoperable, and easy to use. The concepts of cybersecurity, privacy, 
and adoptability are critically important to this overall effort and 
will be interweaved into the work of this project from the beginning. 
The NCCoE intends to help accelerate the adoption of the standards, 
investigate what works and what does not based upon current efforts 
being performed by various entities, and provide a forum/environment to 
discuss and resolve challenges in implementing ISO/IEC 18013-5 
(attended) and ISO/IEC 18013-7 (over-the-internet) standards.
    The scope of this project will include developing an implementable 
reference architecture for the ISO/IEC 18013-5 and ISO/IEC 18013-7 
standard and provide opportunities for validation of use cases. This 
effort may also consider other standards-based initiatives, such as 
emerging efforts around W3C's Mobile Document Request API (GitHub--
WICG/mobile-document-request-api) for mobile document (mdoc) 
presentation. Specific outcomes of this project will be:
    1. Open-Source Reader Reference Implementation--This will be a 
freely available tool for testing and evaluating compliance of mDL 
implementations with international standards and will be used as part 
of the demonstration efforts to confirm interoperability of mDL and 
mdoc applications for use in the lab.
    2. Demonstrations of mDL Use Cases--These will demonstrate end-to-
end uses of mDL in attended and over-the-internet use cases. This will 
include multiple parties such as issuers of mDL, mdoc App providers, 
digital identity service providers and verifiers (aka, relying parties) 
that consume mDLs, all collaborating to bring practical uses to life. 
NCCoE plans to build up to two demonstrations per transaction type. 
There are five transaction types which are described in Section 4 of 
the project description.
    3. Practice Guide--This will capture the lessons of the 
demonstrations to provide a usable guide for implementing mDLs in 
attended and over-the-internet scenarios. This will include design, 
architecture, integration information inclusive of leading practice for 
security, usability, and privacy based on the work with our 
collaborators.
    While these standards address the needs of mDLs, many parts of 
these standards apply to mobile documents in general. Accordingly, this 
effort will include presentation of documents other than mDLs using the 
mdoc data model defined in these standards.

Requirements for Letters of Interest

    Each responding organization's letter of interest should include 
the following information in the description:

    1. The organization's role(s) in the project. The choices are:
    a. Verifier (aka, Relying Party),
    b. mDL and mdoc App Provider,
    c. State DMVs or Other Issuing Authority,
    d. Digital Identity Service Provider, and/or
    e. Third Party Trust Service Provider.
    2. Verifiers should provide a brief description of each use case 
being proposed.
    3. Document Type(s) the product supports.

    Letters of interest should not include company proprietary 
information, and all components and capabilities must be commercially 
available.
    The NCCoE is inviting organizations who have implemented or are 
planning to implement ISO/IEC 18013-5 and ISO/IEC 18013-7 (draft) 
standards to collaborate and contribute toward building mDL (also other 
document types) demonstrations in the NCCoE lab. The following are 
NCCoE expectations of different types of participants:
    <bullet> Verifiers are expected to bring use cases and business 
processes with use cases that
    [cir] Already support mDL/mdoc functionality,
    [cir] Are willing to work and integrate with digital identity 
service providers to mDL/mdoc-enable their use case, or
    [cir] Are willing to integrate NIST open-source reader reference 
implementation to mDL/mdoc-enable their use case.
    <bullet> mDL/mdoc App providers are expected to meet the minimum 
requirements as specified in Section 2 of the project description.
    <bullet> mDL/mdoc Issuers are expected to provide Test mDLs/mdocs.
    <bullet> Digital Identity service providers are expected to provide 
integration services.
    <bullet> Third-Party Trust Service Providers are expected to 
provide Verified Issuer Certificate Authority List (VICAL).
    Additional details about the Accelerate Adoption of Digital 
Identities on Mobile Devices project are available at https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/digital-identities-mdl. NIST cannot 
guarantee that all submissions will be used, or that the products 
proposed by respondents will be used in a demonstration. Each 
prospective participant will be expected to work collaboratively with 
NIST staff and other project participants under the terms of the NCCoE 
consortium CRADA in the development of the Accelerate Adoption of 
Digital Identities on Mobile Devices project. Prospective participants' 
contributions to the collaborative effort will include assistance in 
establishing the necessary interface functionality, connection and set-
up capabilities and procedures, demonstration harnesses, environmental 
and safety conditions for use, integrated platform user instructions, 
and demonstration plans and scripts necessary to demonstrate a use 
case. Each participant will work with NIST

[[Page 59508]]

personnel and other participants, as necessary, to integrate their 
solution into a demonstration of a use case. Following successful 
demonstration, NIST will publish a description of each demonstration 
that includes information such as server architecture, device 
architecture, usability considerations, performance characteristics, 
and lessons learned that meets the security and privacy objectives of 
the Accelerate Adoption of Digital Identities on Mobile Devices 
project. These descriptions will be public information.
    Under the terms of the NCCoE consortium CRADA, NIST will support 
development of interfaces among participants' products by providing IT 
infrastructure, laboratory facilities, office facilities, collaboration 
facilities, and staff support to component composition, security 
platform documentation, and demonstration activities.
    The dates of the demonstration of Accelerate Adoption of Digital 
Identities on Mobile Devices project capability will be announced on 
the NCCoE website at least two weeks in advance at https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/digital-identities-mdl. The expected 
outcome will demonstrate how the components of the Accelerate Adoption 
of Digital Identities on Mobile Devices project architecture can 
provide security and privacy capabilities to mitigate potential risks 
to digital identities throughout their lifecycle. Participating 
organizations will gain from the knowledge that their products are 
interoperable with other participants' offerings.
    For additional information on the NCCoE governance, business 
processes, and NCCoE operational structure, visit the NCCoE website 
https://nccoe.nist.gov/.

Alicia Chambers,
NIST Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2023-18591 Filed 8-28-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-P


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