Federal Information Processing Standards

Overview
Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) are publicly announced standards developed by the U.S. federal government for use by all non-military government agencies and by government contractors. Many FIPS standards are modified versions of standards used in the wider community (American National Standards Institute (ANSI), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), etc.)

Standard Publications
Some FIPS standards were originally developed by the U.S. government. For instance, standards for encoding data (e.g. country codes), but more significantly some encryption standards, such as the Data Encryption Standard (FIPS 46) and the Advanced Encryption Standard (FIPS 197).