97-10162. Office of the Chief Information Officer; Granting of Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Waiver for Digital Signature Standard  

  • [Federal Register Volume 62, Number 76 (Monday, April 21, 1997)]
    [Notices]
    [Pages 19300-19301]
    From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
    [FR Doc No: 97-10162]
    
    
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    DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
    
    
    Office of the Chief Information Officer; Granting of Federal 
    Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Waiver for Digital Signature 
    Standard
    
    AGENCY: Office of the Chief Information Officer, United States 
    Department of Agriculture (USDA).
    
    ACTION: Notice of granting of FIPS waiver request.
    
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    SUMMARY: The Chief Information Officer has granted a waiver to the 
    Agricultural Marketing Service to use Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman (RSA) 
    digital signature technology in lieu of the Digital Signature Standard 
    (DSS) specified by the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 
    186. This waiver was made pursuant to section 111(d) of the Federal 
    Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 as amended by the 
    Computer Security Act of 1987, Public Law 100-235. The Waiver does not 
    apply to any procurement, but allows use of a capability already 
    available in the agency.
    
    DATES: The waiver takes effect on (date of April 10, 1997) and remains 
    valid for the life of the core software and subject to the demands of 
    the USDA Information System Technology Architecture.
    
    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joseph Ware, Chief, Information 
    Management Division, Office of the Chief Information Officer, USDA, 
    202-690-2118.
    
    SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Federal Information Processing Standard 
    (FIPS) 186, ``Digital Signature Standard,'' establishes a standard for 
    generating a digital signature that can be used to verify that 
    electronic documents originated with the signatory of the document, and 
    to protect the entire document against unauthorized modifications of 
    its text. FIPS 186 allows Federal agency heads to waive use of the FIPS 
    186 under certain circumstances.
        A waiver may be granted if compliance with the standard would 
    adversely affect the accomplishment of the mission of an operator of a 
    Federal computer system.
        A waiver may also be granted if compliance with the standard would 
    cause a major adverse financial impact on the operator of a Federal 
    computer
    
    [[Page 19301]]
    
    system which is not offset by Government-wide savings.
        The Chief Information Officer has granted a waiver to Agricultural 
    Marketing Service to employ the RSA digital signature algorithm instead 
    of one conforming to FIPS 186 DSS. The RSA algorithm provides document 
    security that is at least comparable to that specified by FIPS 186 DSS. 
    Unlike the DSS, the algorithm is widely used in a variety of commercial 
    software applications, making development of applications to generate 
    secure USDA documents feasible and cost-effective. Use of DSS would 
    cause major adverse financial impact on the agency, and therefore on 
    its fee-paying customers, because the cost of developing new software 
    employing DSS would be many times the cost of using existing commercial 
    software that employs the RSA algorithm. In accordance with the 
    requirements of FIPS 186, notice of this waiver has been sent to the 
    National Institute of Standards and Technology, United States 
    Department of Commerce; to the Committee on Government Reform and 
    Oversight of the House of Representatives; and to the Committee on 
    Governmental Affairs of the United States Senate.
    Anne F. Thomson Reed,
    Acting Chief Information Officer.
    [FR Doc. 97-10162 Filed 4-18-97; 8:45 am]
    BILLING CODE 3410-01-M
    
    
    

Document Information

Published:
04/21/1997
Department:
Agriculture Department
Entry Type:
Notice
Action:
Notice of granting of FIPS waiver request.
Document Number:
97-10162
Dates:
The waiver takes effect on (date of April 10, 1997) and remains valid for the life of the core software and subject to the demands of the USDA Information System Technology Architecture.
Pages:
19300-19301 (2 pages)
PDF File:
97-10162.pdf