The US National Institute of Standards and Technology has released an updated draft version of its 'Guideline for Implementing Cryptography in the Federal Government'. This is the second edition of a white paper first released in 1999, and a welcome to the literature on practical applications of cryptography.

The paper covers cryptographic hashing, symmetric encryption, and public key infrastructure (PKI), among other common uses of cryptography. The final chapter is a very good overview of the process for selecting cryptographic solutions, and for managing their lifecycle from acquisition to retirement. While some of the material is of use primarily or solely to Federal agencies (e.g., applicable Federal standards fro government data), much of it useful for any business requiring secure stored data and communications.

The link for this article located at NIST.gov is no longer available.