From: FederalNewsRadio.com 1500AM
By Jason Miller
The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Information Technology Laboratory has its hand in nearly every major federal technology initiative from cloud to mobile to healthcare to cybersecurity.
And the ever-increasing dependence on the IT Lab by the rest of government suits Charles Romine, the director of the IT Lab, just fine.
Romine, who took over as director of the lab from long-time leader Cita Furlani about a year ago, said their collaboration with agencies lets them become more effective in meeting the technology needs of the government.
The list of agencies NIST works with is long and growing.
For example, the Energy Department on smart grid, the FBI on biometrics, the Homeland Security Department, the General Services Administration, the Intelligence Community and the Defense Department on cybersecurity and the Treasury Department on securing financial services.
“There aren’t very many federal agencies we don’t have some engagement with and I’m very proud of that,” Romine said. “The breadth of our mission has grown dramatically over the last decade or so, and our contributions are running the gamut from smart grid; we do biometrics; we do software quality assurance. The IT Lab has gotten a lot more attention and there are some challenges that we’ve been assigned, we have to very, very remain strong in order to meet those challenges.”
Tackling the cyber challenge
No challenge is bigger than cybersecurity.
Romine said NIST is close to finalizing updates to special publications for information assurance, 800-53 Rev 4, which governs computer and network controls, and PIV 201-2, which governs the makeup of secure identity cards.
He also said the lab’s leadership with the new National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCE) and the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) continue to stretch the bureau’s impact on the public and private sector communities.
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