Federal Information Processing Standards
type of technical standard
The Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) of the United States are a set of publicly announced standards that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed for use in computer systems of non-military United States government agencies and contractors. FIPS standards establish requirements for ensuring computer security and interoperability, and are intended for cases in which suitable industry standards do not already exist. Many FIPS specifications are modified versions of standards the technical communities use, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Specific areas of FIPS standardization
The U.S. government has developed various FIPS specifications to standardize a number of topics including:
Codes, e.g., FIPS county codes or codes to indicate weather conditions or emergency indications. In 1994, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began broadcasting FIPS codes along with their standard weather broadcasts from local stations. These codes identify the type of emergency and the specific geographic area, such as a county, affected by the emergency.
Encryption standards, such as AES (FIPS 197), and its predecessor, the withdrawn 56-bit DES (FIPS 46-3).
Data security standards
Some FIPS standards are related to the security of data processing systems. Some of these include the use of key escrow systems.
Withdrawal of geographic codes
Some examples of FIPS Codes for geographical areas include FIPS 10-4 for country codes or region codes and FIPS 5-2 for state codes.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Federal Information Processing Standards” as type of technical standard. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as type of technical standard. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q917824. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1994.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Federal Information Processing Standards”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Federal Information Processing Standards primary sources, Federal Information Processing Standards archive and Federal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Federal Information Processing Standards” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.