JUL 08, 2021 | US
NIST Defines ‘Critical Software,’ Implications to Follow
Government Technology, July 8, 2021
By Jule Pattison-Gordon
The White House likely expects forthcoming EO-critical security standards to ripple out to the wider software landscape, beyond just government procurements, according to Henry Young, who previously worked at NIST and now is director of policy at the Software Alliance (BSA), a US-headquartered international software industry advocacy group. The idea is that vendors working for the federal government will simply follow these rules for all their products, making safer products more easily available to everyone.
Should security rules be too rigid, however, vendors might instead create compliant products for the federal government and less secure alternative versions to sell to the general public, Young told GT. He did not see significant risks of this happening, he said.
Aaron Cooper, BSA vice president of Global Policy, told GT that the security requirements NIST settles on will need to be flexible enough to ensure the guidance stays relevant and useful for the long term. Overly prescriptive rules may make sense for the present day but won’t keep up as technology and risks evolve.
For example, a hypothetical policy requiring software verify users via four-digit PINs would be wise 20 years ago but become a liability if it were still in place today, because it would prevent use of biometric or multifactor authentication, Cooper said.
Original Posting: https://www.govtech.com/security/nist-defines-critical-software-implications-to-follow
À PROPOS DE BSA
BSA | The Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) est le principal organisme de défense et de promotion de l’industrie du logiciel auprès des administrations gouvernementales et sur le marché international. Ses membres comptent parmi les entreprises les plus innovantes au monde, à l’origine de solutions logicielles qui stimulent l’économie et améliorent la vie moderne.
Basée à Washington, DC et présente dans plus de 30 pays, BSA est pionnière en matière de programmes de conformité qui encouragent l’utilisation légale de logiciels et plaide en faveur de politiques publiques à même de promouvoir l’innovation technologique et de favoriser la croissance économique numérique.