NIST Proposes New Set Of Guidelines For ‘Building Trustworthy Resilient Systems’

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a draft set of new guidelines aimed at developing and improving security of critical systems and software. Dubbed Systems Security Engineering: An Integrated Approach to Building Trustworthy Resilient Systems [PDF], the SP800-160 takes a bottom up approach to build security into systems right from the beginning.

Taking a cue from multiple international standards for systems, software and security engineering from the likes of International Standards Organisation (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the new SP800-160 draft aims to build trustworthy and resilient system through a four-stage development approach that involves not only technical process but non-technical processes as well.

The authors of the draft haven’t tried to create anything revolutionary, but have drew upon three decades of work carried out by different international organisations...