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

This notice lists the membership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Performance Review Board (NIST PRB) and supersedes the list published on September 3, 2014.

The Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT or Committee), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will meet in an open session on Tuesday, October 18, 2016 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mountain Time and Wednesday, October 19, 2016 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Mountain Time. The VCAT is composed of fifteen members appointed by the NIST Director who are eminent in such fields as business, research, new product development, engineering, labor, education, management consulting, environment, and international relations.

The Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity requests information about current and future states of cybersecurity in the digital economy. As directed by Executive Order 13718, ``Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity'' (the ``Executive Order''), the Commission will make detailed recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors while protecting privacy, ensuring public safety and economic and national security, fostering discovery and development of new technical solutions, and bolstering partnerships between Federal, State and local government and the private sector in the development, promotion, and use of cybersecurity technologies, policies, and best practices. The Secretary of Commerce was tasked by the Exective Order to direct the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to provide the Commission with such expertise, services, funds, facilities, staff, equipment, and other support services as may be necessary to carry out its mission. Responses to this RFIwhich will be posted at https://www.nist.gov/ cybercommissionwill inform the Commission as it develops its detailed recommendations.

This is a notice in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 209(e) and 37 CFR 404.7(a)(1)(i) that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (``NIST''), U.S. Department of Commerce, is contemplating the grant of an exclusive license in the United States of America, its territories, possessions and commonwealths, to NIST's interest in the invention embodied in U.S. Patent Application No. 15/188,211, titled ``Acousto-Microwave System for Determining Mass or Leak of Gas in a Vessel and Process for Same,'' (NIST Docket No. 15-010US1) to Western Energy Support & Technology, Inc. The grant of the license would be for leak rate testing and gas flow standards fields of uses.

The Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity will meet Tuesday, August 23, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Central Time at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium-DQ Club Room. The primary purpose of the meeting is to discuss the challenges and opportunities for organizations and consumers in securing the digital economy. In particular, the meeting will address: (1) Challenges confronting consumers in the digital economy; (2) innovation (Internet of Things, healthcare, and other areas); and (3) assured products and services. The meeting will support detailed recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors while protecting privacy, ensuring public safety and economic and national security, fostering discovery and development of new technical solutions, and bolstering partnerships between Federal, State, local, tribal and territorial governments and the private sector in the development, promotion, and use of cybersecurity technologies, policies, and best practices. All sessions will be open to the public.

The 101st Annual Meeting of the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) will be held in Denver, Colorado, from Sunday, July 24, 2016, through Thursday, July 28, 2016. This notice contains information about significant items on the NCWM Committee agendas but does not include all agenda items. As a result, the items are not consecutively numbered.

NIST invites applications from eligible organizations in connection with NIST's funding up to eleven (11) separate MEP cooperative agreements for the operation of MEP Centers in the designated States' service areas and in the funding amounts identified in the Funding Availability section of this notice. NIST anticipates awarding one (1) cooperative agreement for each of the identified States. The objective of this announcement by the MEP Program is to provide manufacturing extension services to primarily small and medium- sized manufacturers within the States designated in the Funding Availability section of this notice. The selected organizations will become part of the MEP national system of extension service providers, currently located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Smart Grid Advisory Committee (SGAC or Committee), will meet in open session on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time and Thursday, July 14, 2016 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. This meeting was originally scheduled for January 26-27, 2016 and was rescheduled due to inclement weather. The primary purposes of this meeting are to provide updates on NIST Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical Systems Program activities and to discuss resiliency and reliability topics. 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.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites organizations to provide products and technical expertise to support and demonstrate security platforms for the Data Integrity Building Block. 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 Data Integrity Building Block. Participation in the Data Integrity Building Block is open to all interested organizations.

The Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Board of Overseers) and the Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Judges Panel) will meet together in open session on Thursday, June 9, 2016, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. The Board of Overseers, appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, reports the results of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Award) activities to the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) each year, along with its recommendations for the improvement of the Award process. The Judges Panel, also appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, ensures the integrity of the Award selection process and recommends Award recipients to the Secretary of Commerce. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss and review information received from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and from the Chair of the Judges Panel. The agenda will include: Baldrige Program Update, Baldrige Foundation Fundraising Update, Baldrige Judges Panel Update, Ethics Review, Applicants and Eligibility, and New Business/Public Comment.

The Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB) will meet Wednesday, June 15, 2016, from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Thursday, June 16, 2016, from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and Friday, June 17, 2016, from 8:30 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. All sessions will be open to the public.

The Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity (the ``Commission'') will meet Monday, May 16, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time in Vanderbilt Hall at the New York University (NYU) School of Law, Center on Law and Security located at 40 Washington Square South, New York, New York. The primary purpose of the meeting is to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the finance and insurance sectors as the Commission develops detailed recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors while protecting privacy, ensuring public safety and economic and national security, fostering discovery and development of new technical solutions, and bolstering partnerships between Federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments and the private sector in the development, promotion, and use of cybersecurity technologies, policies, and best practices. All sessions will be open to the public.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces that the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Advisory Board will hold an open meeting on Thursday May 19, 2016, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

The Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity will meet Thursday, April 14, 2016, from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. Eastern Time. The primary purpose of the meeting is to discuss the goals and outcomes of the Commission's work with an emphasis on topics for the Commission to review as it develops detailed recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors while protecting privacy, ensuring public safety and economic and national security, fostering discovery and development of new technical solutions, and bolstering partnerships between Federal, State, local, tribal and territorial governments and the private sector in the development, promotion, and use of cybersecurity technologies, policies, and best practices. All sessions will be open to the public.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is establishing the Service Life Prediction Methodologies and Metrologies for Commercial Polymers Consortium (Consortium) and invites organizations to join the Consortium. The Consortium will develop the science necessary to support the modification of standards for the testing and the certification of commercial polymeric materials. This notice is the initial step for the Consortium in collaborating with organizations to develop reliability-based service life prediction methodology for commercial polymers. The prediction methods will be used to update testing standards for polymeric materials in order to better assess the level of protection for the consumer while reducing the time for evaluation and certification of polymeric materials. Participation in the Consortium is open to all eligible organizations as described below.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces that the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Advisory Board will hold an open meeting on Tuesday March 1, 2016, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites organizations to provide products and technical expertise to support and demonstrate security platforms for the Wireless Medical Infusion Pumps use case for the health care sector. 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 Health Care Sector program. Participation in the use case is open to all interested organizations.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces the Genome in a Bottle ConsortiumProgress and Planning Workshop to be held on Thursday, January 28, 2016, and Friday, January 29, 2016. 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 workshop 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 workshop will include progress and planning of the Analysis Group, which is analyzing and integrating the large variety of sequencing data for four candidate NIST Reference Materials (RMs), with a particular focus on challenging types of variants and challenging regions of the genome. Other potential NIST RMs that might be developed by the consortium will also be discussed.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Smart Grid Advisory Committee (SGAC or Committee), will meet in open session on Tuesday, January 26, 2016 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time and Wednesday, January 27, 2016 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. The primary purposes of this meeting are to provide updates on NIST Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical Systems Program activities and to discuss resiliency and reliability topics. 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.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking information on 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 industry input and public comments. In order to fulfill its responsibilities under the Cyber Security Enhancement Act of 2014, NIST is committed to maintaining an inclusive approach, informed by the views of a wide array of individuals, organizations, and sectors. In this RFI, NIST requests information about the variety of ways in which the Framework is being used to improve cybersecurity risk management, how best practices for using the Framework are being shared, the relative value of different parts of the Framework, the possible need for an update of the Framework, and options for the long- term governance of the Framework. This information is needed in order to carry out NIST's responsibilities under the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014 and the Executive Order. 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 how to further advance the Framework so that the Nation's critical infrastructure is more secure by enhancing its cybersecurity and risk management. All information provided will also assist in developing the agenda for a workshop on the Framework being planned by NIST for April 6 and 7, 2016, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Specifics about the workshop will be announced at a later date.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) requests comments on Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 186-4, Digital Signature Standard, which has been in effect since July 2013. FIPS 186-4 specifies three techniques for the generation and verification of digital signatures that can be used for the protection of data: the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman Algorithm (RSA), the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA), and the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), along with a set of elliptic curves recommended for government use. NIST is primarily seeking comments on the recommended elliptic curves specified in Appendix D of the FIPS, but comments on other areas of the FIPS will also be considered. FIPS 186-4 is available at https:// dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.FIPS.186-4.

This notice announces the withdrawal of six Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS): FIPS 181, FIPS 185, FIPS 188, FIPS 190, FIPS 191 and FIPS 196. These FIPS are obsolete and are being withdrawn because they have not been updated to reference current or revised voluntary industry standards, federal specifications, or federal data standards. Federal agencies are responsible for using current voluntary industry standards and current federal specifications and data standards in their acquisition and management activities.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites organizations to provide products and technical expertise to support and demonstrate security platforms for the Domain Name System- Based (DNS) Security for Electronic Mail Building Block. 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 Domain Name System-Based Security for Electronic Mail Building Block. Participation in this building block is open to all interested organizations.

The Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Judges Panel) will meet in closed session Monday through Friday, November 2-6, 2015, from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time each day. The purpose of this meeting is to review recommendations from site visits, and recommend 2015 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipients. The meeting is closed to the public in order to protect the proprietary data to be examined and discussed at the meeting.