The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a Cybersecurity Profile for the Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT), to help organizations make deliberate, risk-informed decisions on their use of PNT services. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) encourages relevant stakeholders to submit feedback to NIST, which is seeking comments on the draft PNT cybersecurity profile by November 23, 2020.
The PNT cybersecurity profile will serve to help organizations identify systems, networks, and assets dependent on PNT services; identify appropriate PNT services; detect the disruption and manipulation of PNT services; and manage the associated risks to the systems, networks, and assets dependent on PNT services.
Among other items, NIST is particularly interested in comments and recommendations on:
The draft is part of NIST’s response to the February 12, 2020 Executive Order 13905, "Strengthening National Resilience through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services." According to the order: “the widespread adoption of PNT services means disruption or manipulation of these services could adversely affect U.S. national and economic security. To strengthen national resilience, the Federal Government must foster the responsible use of PNT services by critical infrastructure owners and operators.”
NIST reports that the profile will be developed using an open and collaborative process involving public and private sector stakeholders to ensure critical infrastructure owners and operators, government agencies, and others can inform the responsible use of PNT services and effectively adopt, refine, and implement the profile.
Comments must be received no later than November 23, 2020. See the publication details for a copy of the draft and instructions for submitting comments. All relevant comments will be posted publicly.
More on PNT
Many Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) needs are met by GPS, and precision time signals sent through GPS synchronize cellphone calls, time-stamp financial transactions, and support safe travel by aircraft, ship, train and car, according to NIST. However, GPS transmissions can be disrupted unintentionally by radio interference or the weather in space, and they could be interrupted intentionally. NIST will provide guidance in the form of “profiles” to help organizations make deliberate, risk-informed decisions on their use of PNT services and will offer a time service over optical fiber lines as an alternate source of precision time.
NIST has released an informational video on how the world that relies on PNT and how our economy depends on them. Access the video: www.nist.gov/pnt.