NIST Special Publication 800-21

Citation
NIST Special Publication 800-21, Guideline for Implementing Cryptography In the Federal Government (2d ed. Dec. 2005).(full-text)

Overview
This Guideline is intended to provide a structured, yet flexible set of guidelines for selecting, specifying, employing, and evaluating cryptographic protection mechanisms in federal information systems &mdash; and thus, makes a significant contribution toward satisfying the security requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002, Pub. L. No. 107-347. Under current law, NIST standards and recommendations are binding for federal systems that are not designated national security systems.