The guidelines will serve as a road map for federal agencies in meeting mandates set by the(FISA). Government agencies will be required to have certain security controls, policies and procedures in place.
"This document of security guidelines is going to play a key role in helping federal agencies effectively select and implement security controls," Shashi Phoha, NIST Information Technology Laboratory director, said in a statement.
At the heart of the initiative is an effort to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of all federal information systems that are not part of the national security system.
Earlier this month, an annual FISA-mandatedgave systems at federal agencies a "D+" for computer security. Key agencies in charge of critical components of the U.S. infrastructure got grades of "D" and lower, with the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Energy all receiving an "F."
The security controls in the new NIST guidelines span 17 key areas, ranging from user identification to authentication to risk assessment.
Federal agencies and Web sites that have experienced security breaches. These have ranged from denial-of-service attacksto other such attacks on . Hackers have also engaged in such acts as from government agencies and contractors.