NIST

[Michael Scott]

 As we know NIST employees make a major contribution to these groups.

I am curious to know what is the likely impact of the recent regime change in the US, and the establishment of the DOGE agency, on NIST?

Will it be (a) shuttered (b) downsized or (c) will it be business as usual?

Some reassurance on this would be welcome.

NIST is a federal agency, and I have read reports that the sister agency NSA is already impacted. (Even the CIA, so it does seem unlikely that NIST would not be impacted in some way.)

The work of NIST is of course of international significance.


Mike Scott

[Ethan Gordon]

Some context:

NIST is under the Department of Commerce which was created by Congress in 1903. Any attempt by the executive to unilaterally shutter NIST without a bill approved by congress violates the law and constitution so it would be struck down. Downsizing would likely involve refusing to spend funds already appropriated by congress which is also in violation of the law. 

I am not a NIST employee so I cannot speak to current agency events but I do work for agencies in the IC. Any attempts to do the above should be prohibited or rolled back once challenged in court. 

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Best regards,

Ethan Gordon
Founder and CEO
BytesLogik LLC
📞 (202) 604-6783
✉️ ethan....@byteslogik.com

[Sophie Schmieg]

To be fair though, the same applies to US AID, NOAA, the Department of Education, etc. I do think preparing mitigations for at least temporary availability risks of NIST's documents might be prudent. I downloaded everything I considered important for my own work when there was a looming shutdown in December, but a more comprehensive approach might be useful.

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Sophie Schmieg | Information Security Engineer | ISE Crypto | ssch...@google.com

[Ethan Gordon]

Completely agree. Temporary actions are certainly prudent. But the same limitations apply to those agencies/depts other than USAID I believe. From what I know USAID is an independent agency created by a executive order from JFK. I'm not sure what the constitutionality of actions surrounding that class of agency is. 

[Wrenna Robson]

I believe USAID was then later reinforced by an actual bill from Congress. I don't want to be alarmist but nothing I'm seeing about current events in the USA suggests that the rule of law would be an adequate protection if the current administration wanted to shut it down.

Best, 

Wrenna Robson

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[Ethan Gordon]

I’m certainly concerned, and the alarms are justified. However, the hope is that our judicial branch—likely cautious about encroachments on the separation of powers—will serve as a final safeguard. If that fails, which I believe is unlikely, I will be the first to raise every alarm I can. Until then, I think temporary action is necessary, but maintaining a clear and measured perspective is also crucial. Our country has faced many challenges, yet we've always come through.

[John Mattsson]

https://web.archive.org/web/20241227125611/https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.203.pdf

All specifications seem to be there. At least if you know the URL.

John

 

From: Kathleen Moriarty <kathleen.mo...@gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, 6 February 2025 at 18:51
To: Salz, Rich <rsalz=40akam...@dmarc.ietf.org>
Cc: Sophie Schmieg <sschmieg=40goog...@dmarc.ietf.org>, Ethan Gordon <ethan....@byteslogik.com>, pqc-forum <pqc-...@list.nist.gov>, CFRG <cf...@irtf.org>
Subject: [CFRG] Re: [pqc-forum] NIST

I've tried searching for NIST on the Internet Archives and it returns no results. Maybe they are already working on it? But having the documents accessible again would be important if needed.

 

https://eotarchive.org/data/

 

Sophie, I agree it could be helpful to have the data just in case.

 

Best regards,

Kathleen

 

On Thu, Feb 6, 2025 at 12:24 PM Salz, Rich <rsalz=40akam...@dmarc.ietf.org> wrote:

Wired is trying to keep track: https://www.wired.com/story/us-government-websites-are-disappearing-in-real-time/

Several other sites actually keep copies; see https://bowdoin.libguides.com/government/websites

 

They’re probably not current/good enough.

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Best regards,

Kathleen

[Mike Gardiner]

If we go by Project 2025, (in my limited understanding) then NIST is likely to be partially merged with the patent and trademark office and partially shuttered. 

Your bet is as good as mine on if commercial standards are a priority vs allowing the market to sort it out. 

[Loganaden Velvindron]

Personally, I don't think that the NIST role will shrink in PQC
standardization. In any case,
Maybe the IETF could start discussions at "taking over" should NIST
(in the unlikely case) decide that PQC is no longer within
its mandate ?

On Fri, 7 Feb 2025 at 00:50, Mike Gardiner <gard...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> If we go by Project 2025, (in my limited understanding) then NIST is likely to be partially merged with the patent and trademark office and partially shuttered.
>
> Your bet is as good as mine on if commercial standards are a priority vs allowing the market to sort it out.
>

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