Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)
What does FIPS mean how is FIPS compliance determined?
FIPS stands for Federal Information Processing Standards, which are published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the permission of the Secretary of Commerce under the Information Technology Management Reform Act to address security and interoperability standards on federal government computer systems in areas that preexisting federal laws and regulations fail to address.
FIPS mandates a number of different types of security and auditing procedures that depend on the type of data being stored and protected. FIPS 140-2, which covers cryptographic standards for securing sensitive non-confidential data, requires companies to implement security safeguards that conform is broken down into four different levels of security. Other FIPS standards cover other details such as key-hashing, AES encryption and more.
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How does FIPS data center & cloud hosting work?
Our Private Cloud hosting accounts operate much like computers that run on an encrypted hosting environment. You can upload files, run software and store sensitive data using 256-AES encryption, NIST-compliant security and information handling safeguards across our network of 8 SSL-A data centers. Our Private Cloud hosting environments can also be scaled up or down to accommodate specific FIPS protocols.
How can I audit & maintain compliance with FIPS hosting?
For FIPS, there’s nothing that you’d need to do on your end—we’ve got this covered! We regularly audit our systems using SSAE-16 SOC standards, and our IT team proactively patches security vulnerabilities and applies updates so you can focus on your day-to-day organizational tasks.
What other compliance standards are similar to FIPS?
FIPS works in tandem with other federal data security standards to fill in any compliance gaps or loopholes. It’s the only federal compliance standard of its kind that serves this function.
Are there Abacus clients that are FIPS compliant today?
We have many clients who are using FIPS-compliant Abacus Private Cloud accounts. Contact our FIPS compliance hosting specialists today to see how Abacus Private Cloud can help your organization fulfill your FIPS compliance needs.
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