National Institute of Standards and Technology August 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) requests information about the level of awareness throughout critical infrastructure organizations, and initial experiences with the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (the ``Framework''). As directed by Executive Order 13636, ``Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity'' (the ``Executive Order''), the Framework consists of standards, methodologies, procedures, and processes that align policy, business, and technological approaches to address cyber risks. The Framework was released on February 12, 2014, after a year-long, open process involving private and public sector organizations, including extensive input and public comments. Responses to this RFIwhich will be posted at https://www.nist.gov/ cyberframework/cybersecurity-framework-rfi.cfmwill inform NIST's planning and decision-making about possible tools and resources to help organizations to use the Framework more effectively and efficiently. They will also help inform future versions of the Framework. The responses will also inform the Department of Homeland Security's Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community C\3\ Voluntary Program. In addition, NIST is interested in receiving comments related to the Roadmap that accompanied publication of the Framework. All information provided will also assist in developing the agenda for a workshop on the Framework being planned for October 2014.

The Smart Grid Advisory Committee (SGAC or Committee) will hold an open meeting via teleconference/webinar on Tuesday, September 9, 2014 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET). The primary purposes of this meeting are to provide an update on the NIST Smart Grid Program, provide a recap and analysis of the June 3-4, 2014 meeting, and plan for the next face to face SGAC meeting. The agenda may change to accommodate Committee business. The final agenda will be posted on the Smart Grid Web site at https://www.nist.gov/smartgrid.

NIST announces the Genome in a Bottle Consortium meeting to be held on Thursday and Friday, August 14 and 15, 2014. The Genome in a Bottle Consortium is developing the reference materials, reference methods, and reference data needed to assess confidence in human whole genome variant calls. A principal motivation for this consortium is to enable performance assessment of sequencing and science-based regulatory oversight of clinical sequencing. The purpose of this meeting is to update participants about progress of the consortium work, continue to get broad input from individual stakeholders to update or refine the consortium work plan, continue to broadly solicit consortium membership from interested stakeholders, and invite members to participate in work plan implementation. Topics of discussion at this meeting will include examples of laboratories using the pilot candidate NIST Reference Material, progress on the next set of NIST Reference Materials, structural variants, and potential Reference Materials for cancer genomics.

The Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Judges Panel) will meet in closed session on Wednesday, August 27, 2014, from 9:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The purpose of this meeting is to review the results of examiners' scoring of written applications. Panel members will vote on which applicants merit site visits by examiners to verify the accuracy of quality improvements claimed by applicants. The meeting is closed to the public in order to protect the proprietary data to be examined and discussed at the meeting.