VISITING COMMITTEE ON ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY (VCAT)

MINUTES OF THE JULY 14, 2014, MEETING 

GAITHERSBURG, MD

ATTENDANCE:

Visiting Committee

Members 

Chand, Sujeet

Chowdhry, Uma

Haymet, Tony

Holt, William

Padovani, Roberto

Solomon, Darlene

Tracy, John

VCAT Exec. Dir.

Ehrlich, Gail

NIST Leadership Board

Boehm, Jason

Kimball, Kevin

May, Willie

Romine, Chuck

NIST Staff 

Arrisueno, Gladys

Dodson, Donna

Evans, Heather

Huergo, Jennifer

Miner, Laurel

Regenscheid, Andrew

Scholl, Matt

Schufreider, James

Tabassi, Elham

Committee of Visitors 

Members:

Felten, Edward

Director, Center for 

Information Technology 

Policy, Robert E. Kahn 

Professor of Computer 

Science and Public Affairs, 

Princeton University

Lipner, Steve

Partner Director of Software 

Security, Microsoft 

Corporation

Preneel, Bart

Professor, Katholieke 

Universiteit Leuven, 

Belgium

Others 

Perera, Dave

Cybersecurity Reporter, 

PoliticoPro

Mazmanian, Adam

Staff Writer, Federal 

Computer Week
Call to Order – Dr. Tony Haymet, VCAT Chair

Dr. Haymet called the meeting to order at 11:00 a.m. and asked attendees to introduce 

themselves.

VCAT Subcommittee on Cybersecurity Report to the VCAT – Roberto Padovani, Chair, 

VCAT Subcommittee on Cybersecurity

Presentation Summary: Dr. Padovani summarized the purpose, process, and work of the 

Subcommittee on Cybersecurity. At the February 2014 VCAT meeting, then-NIST Director Pat 

Gallagher charged the VCAT to assess NIST’s cryptographic standards development process. 

The VCAT asked a blue-ribbon Committee of Visitors, comprising of Vint Cerf from Google, Ed 

Felton from Princeton University, Steve Lipner from Microsoft Corporation, Bob Preneel from 

Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, Ellen Richey of Visa, Ron Rivest from MIT, and Fran Schrotter 

from American National Standards Institute, ANSI, to assist them in that endeavor.

The Committee of Visitors met with the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and NIST staff in two 

teleconferences and one face-to-face meeting between April 30th and May 29th, and the 

Committee of Visitors delivered their individual reports to the Dr. Padovani, as the Chair of the 

Subcommittee, by June 20th. The Subcommittee prepared a report based on those

recommendations, and distributed it to the full VCAT for review on July 7th. 

The VCAT has asked NIST to review not only the Subcommittee’s report, but also the reports of 

each member of the Committee of Visitors, and to report back to the VCAT their plan to address 

the union of the sets of recommendations. 

For more information, see Dr. Padovani’s presentation.

Discussion: The group discussed the following points:

- How the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity chose the members of the Committee of 

Visitors.

- What the future of the Committee of Visitors interaction with NIST would be.

- Whether NIST has the depth in cryptographic expertise to do assessments such as these in 

the future.

Vote: Darlene Solomon moved to have the VCAT adopt the Subcommittee report in its entirety, 

and Uma Chowdhry seconded. The other members of the VCAT in attendance each voted to 

adopt the report, and Tony Haymet read the aye votes from Rodney Brooks, Al Romig, and 

Karen Kerr, who were voting in absentia. To read the report, go here.

Adjournment:

The meeting was adjourned at 11:40 a.m. on July 14, 2014.

I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the forgoing minutes are accurate and 

complete.

Karen Lellock, Executive Director, NIST Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology

Dr. Tony Haymet, Chair, NIST Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology