On February 12, 2020, President Trump signed the Executive Order on Strengthening National Resilience through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services. The order seeks to ensure that the nation’s critical infrastructure, such as energy, financial and transportation sectors, are resilient to disruptions in GPS or other sources of PNT, including time signals sent over the internet. The Executive Order directs the Department of Commerce (that includes NIST) and other agencies to work with the private sector to identify and promote responsible methods of using PNT services that appropriately manage risks.
NIST is now working to provide guidance in the form of a Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)-based “profile” to help organizations make deliberate, risk-informed decisions on their use of PNT services. NIST is planning to record a webcast later this month to explain more…but they would love to hear your questions ahead of time. Please submit questions via pnt-eo@list.nist.gov or on Twitter using the hashtag #NISTPNT by 5/21. NIST will answer them during the webcast, which will be released on June 4th at 2PM EDT and will be available through https://www.nist.gov/itl/pnt.
5/28 Update: NIST has released their PNT RFI for public and private sector input:
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking information about public and private sector use of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services, and standards, practices, and technologies used to manage cybersecurity risks, to systems, networks, and assets dependent on PNT services. The Federal Register posting of the RFI is available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/05/27/2020-11282/profile-of-responsible-use-of-positioning-navigation-and-timing-services