The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a mandatory computer security standard for all civilian agencies.(Washington Insider)(Brief Article)

Set-Aside Alert, March, 2004

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a mandatory computer security standard for an civilian agencies.

The standard was developed following passage of the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 199, Standards for the Security Categorization of Federal Information and Information Systems, introduces significant changes in how the federal government protects information and the computerized networks that store information by giving detailed guidance on how to categorize systems.

A copy of the standard is available at http://csrc.nist.gov.