Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)

The US government produces technical advice on IT systems and security, including data encryption. The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) is an important body that is concerned with IT systems and security. NIST produces recommendations and standards, including the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS).

The FIPS 140-2 standard requires the use of strong cryptographic algorithms. FIPS 140-2 also specifies requirements for hashing algorithms to be used to protect packets against modification in transit. Over time, analysts develop attacks against existing encryption and hashing algorithms. New algorithms are adopted to resist those attacks. FIPS 140-2 is periodically updated to take account of these changes. For more information about FIPS, see Federal Information Processing Standards Publications (FIPS PUBS).

Eclipse Amlen can be configured to provide FIPS 140-2 support. For more information about configuring Eclipse Amlen to use FIPS-compliant security, see Configuring security.