FIPS Level 1 Support

FIPS Level 1 Support Software FIPS

Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) are a set of standards that define security requirements for products that implement cryptographic modules used to secure sensitive but unclassified information. The most recent standards are defined in the FIPS Publication 140-2.

The FIPS documents define, among other things, security levels for computer and networking equipment. U.S. Federal Government departments, and other organizations, use FIPS to evaluate the cryptographic capabilities of the equipment they consider for purchase. Cryptographic modules are validated against separate areas of the FIPS specification. An overall certification level is assigned based on the minimum level achieved in any area. Although primarily aimed at environments requiring strict security, FIPS levels are increasingly enforced as qualifying criteria for all U.S. Federal Government contracts. Security-conscious private enterprises might also use FIPS levels as an equipment evaluation benchmark. FIPS levels also serve as a customer-neutral description of vendor requirements. Vendors can engineer security products to FIPS levels and extend the applicability and eligibility of these products across a broad customer base, thereby eliminating exhaustive and time-consuming customer-by-customer product qualification procedures.

Ivanti offers FIPS level 1 support for IPS. Both services use a 140-2 level 1 certified cryptographic module to comply with FIPS. When FIPS level 1 support is enabled applications, such as browsers, accessing the web server must support Transport Layer Security (TLS), the latest version of Secure Socket Layer (SSL). If the platform features hardware acceleration, then for SSL processing SSL hardware acceleration is disabled as hardware acceleration does not comply with FIPS validation. Only FIPS approved algorithms are used when in FIPS level 1 support is enabled.

For more information about the Ivanti Cryptographic Module, see the security policy and the validation certificate. For a complete list of validated FIPS 140-1 and FIPS 140-2 cryptography modules, see http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140val-all.htm#2018.