Which of the following guidelines is recommended for engineering, protecting, managing, processing, and controlling national security and sensitive (although unclassified) information?

Question

Options

• AFederal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)
• BSpecial Publication (SP)
• CNISTIRs (Internal Reports)
• DDIACAP by the United States Department of Defense (DoD)

• B
  91% (20)
• C
  5% (1)
• D
  5% (1)

Explanation

NIST Special Publications (SP 800-series) are the authoritative guidelines issued by NIST for engineering, protecting, managing, processing, and controlling sensitive federal information, including national security-related but unclassified data - key examples include SP 800-53 (security controls) and SP 800-171 (protecting Controlled Unclassified Information).

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (FIPS): FIPS are mandatory standards for specific technical requirements (e.g., approved encryption algorithms like AES in FIPS 197), not broad guidelines for managing sensitive information end-to-end.
• C (NISTIRs): Internal/Interagency Reports are research and informational documents - they document findings and studies but are not prescriptive guidelines agencies are expected to follow.
• D (DIACAP): This was a DoD-specific certification and accreditation process (now replaced by the RMF), scoped only to DoD systems rather than serving as a general federal guideline.

Memory tip: Think SP = Special Protection - when you need a NIST guideline (not a rigid standard, not a report), reach for a Special Publication. The "800-series" number is your clue that it's the guidance framework for federal information security.

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