[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 170 (Tuesday, September 2, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Page 51276]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-20138]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Institute of Standards and Technology
[Docket No.: 080506635-8697-01]
Announcing Approval of the Withdrawal of Ten Federal Information
Processing Standards (FIPS)
AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces that the Secretary of Commerce has
approved the withdrawal of ten Federal Information Processing Standards
(FIPS).
These FIPS are being withdrawn because they are obsolete, or have
not been updated to adopt current voluntary industry standards, federal
specifications, federal data standards, or current good practices for
information security. Some of these FIPS adopt voluntary industry
standards. Federal agencies and departments are directed by the
National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-
113) to use technical standards that are developed in voluntary
consensus standards bodies. Consequently, FIPS that duplicate voluntary
industry standards are no longer needed.
Some of these FIPS adopt data standards that are developed and used
by other Federal government agencies. These FIPS have not been updated
to reflect changes and modifications that have been made to the data
standards. The remaining FIPS adopt obsolete Federal specifications for
information access and for information security. More recent advisory
guidance has been issued concerning access to publicly available
government information and computer data authentication. Federal
agencies are responsible for using current voluntary industry standards
and current federal specifications and data standards in their
acquisition and management activities.
DATES: This withdrawal is effective September 2, 2008.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Shirley M. Radack, (301) 975-2833,
National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, STOP
8930, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930, e-mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A notice was published in the Federal
Register (70 FR 40984-85) on July 15, 2005, announcing the proposed
withdrawal of the ten Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS).
The Federal Register notice solicited comments on the proposed
withdrawal of the FIPS from the public, research communities,
manufacturers, voluntary standards organizations, and Federal, State,
and local government organizations. In addition to being published in
the Federal Register, the notice was posted on the NIST Web pages.
Information was provided about the submission of electronic comments.
Comments were received from one federal government organization. No
comments were received from industry organizations or individuals.
Following is a summary of the comments received.
Comments were received from the Department of Energy (DOE) Office
of Scientific and Technical Information. The DOE comments supported the
withdrawal of FIPS 192, Application Profile for the Government
Information Locator Service (GILS), and FIPS 192-1 (a)&(b), Application
Profile for the Government Information Locator Service (GILS). DOE
agreed that the withdrawal of these standards was appropriate since
technology advances have made the standards obsolete.
DOE stated that the GILS standard was created in 1994 to provide a
mechanism for users to identify, locate, and access or acquire publicly
available federal information resources. However, in the years since
GILS was issued, advances in technology have made the standard
obsolete. Today there are many tools available for finding information
on the Internet, including Google, FirstGov, Meta Search Engines, and
the Open Archives Initiative. These newer techniques enable agencies to
avoid the ongoing, resource intensive cataloging efforts mandated by
the GILS.
No comments were received concerning the other standards that had
been proposed for withdrawal.
The FIPS number, title, and technical specifications for each of
the ten FIPS being withdrawn are:
FIPS 4-2, Representation of Calendar Date to Facilitate Interchange
of Data Among Information Systems; adopts American National Standard
ANSI X3.30-1997: Representation of Date for Information Interchange
(revision of ANSI X3.30-1985 (R1991)).
FIPS 5-2, Codes for the Identification of the States, the District
of Columbia and the Outlying Areas of the United States, and Associated
Areas.
FIPS 6-4, Counties and Equivalent Entities of the U.S., Its
Possessions, and Associated Areas.
FIPS 10-4, Countries, Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty,
and Their Principal Administrative Divisions.
FIPS 113, Computer Data Authentication.
FIPS 161-2, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) (adopts families of
EDI standards known as X12, UN/EDIFACT and HL7).
FIPS 183, Integration Definition for Function Modeling (IDEF0).
FIPS 184, Integration Definition for Information Modeling (IDEFIX).
FIPS 192, Application Profile for the Government Information
Locator Service (GILS).
FIPS 192-1 (a)&(b), Application Profile for the Government
Information Locator Service (GILS).
Once the FIPS are withdrawn, information on them may be found at:
http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/withdraw.htm. Withdrawal means that
these FIPS will no longer be part of a subscription service that is
provided by the National Technical Information Service. NIST will
continue to provide relevant information on standards and guidelines by
means of electronic dissemination methods.
Current versions of the data standards and specifications are
available through the Web pages of the Federal agencies that develop
and maintain the data codes. NIST will keep references to these
withdrawn FIPS on its FIPS Web pages, and will link to current versions
of these standards and specifications where appropriate.
Authority: Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) are
issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology after
approval by the Secretary of Commerce pursuant to Section 5131 of
the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 (Pub. L.
104-106), the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of
2002 (Pub. L. 107-347), and Appendix III to Office of Management and
Budget Circular A-130.
E.O. 12866: This notice has been determined to be not significant
for the purposes of E.O. 12866.
Dated: August 22, 2008.
James M. Turner,
Deputy Director.
[FR Doc. E8-20138 Filed 8-29-08; 8:45 am]
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