This book provides detailed and practical information for practitioners to understand why they should choose certification. It covers the pros and cons, and shows how to design to comply with the specifications (FIPS-140, SP800 documents, and related international specs such as AIS31, GM/T-0005-2021, etc.). It also covers how to perform compliance testing. By the end of the book, you will know how to interact with accredited certification labs and with related industry forums (CMUF, ICMC). In short, the book covers everything you need to know to make sound designs. There is a process for FIPS-140 (Federal Information Processing Standard) certification for cryptographic products sold to the US government. And there are parallel certifications in other countries, resulting in a non-trivial and complex process. A large market of companies has grown to help companies navigate the FIPS-140 certification process. And there are accredited certification labs you must contract toget the certification. Although this was once a fairly niche topic, it is no longer so. Other industries—banking, military, healthcare, air travel, and more—have adopted FIPS certification for cryptographic products. The demand for these services has grown exponentially. Still, the available skills pool has not grown. Many people are working on products with zero usable information on |