FIPS 186-2, digital signature standard (DSS), adopted

The Secretary of Commerce accepted MST's recommendation and approved Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 186-2, Digital Signature Standard (DSS), which supersedes FIPS 186-1, DSS. FIPS 186-2 expands the Digital Signature Standard by specifying two voluntary industry standards for generating and verifying digital signatures. This action will enable federal agencies to use the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA), which was originally the single approved technique for digital signatures, as well as two American National Standards Intsitute (ANSI) that were developed by the financial community. These latter standards are ANSI X9.31, Digital Signatures Using Reversible Public Key Cryptography, and ANSI X9.62, Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). FIPS 186-2 specifies an 18 month transition period, during which agencies may continue to use their existing digital signature systems and acquire additional equipment that may be needed to intemperate with these legacy digital signature systems. In addition, FIPS 186-2 specifies recommended elliptic curves for use by the federal government when using X9.62 Digital Signature techniques. See http://csrc.nist.gov/cryptval and select FIPS 186-2.

CONTACT: Elaine Barker, [phone]; elaine. [email protected].