The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a draft of amended guidance that drops a cryptographic algorithm the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is thought to have used to bypass encryption that protects much of global commerce, banking systems, medical records, and online communications. The action comes after the cryptographic community expressed outrage over NSA's exploitation of a deterministic random bit generator (DRBG) to circumvent encryption by using guidance-specified parameters. They warn this could subsequently enable hackers to predict the secret cryptographic keys that form the foundation for the guarantees provided in the special publication. NIST recommends users and implementers switch to one of three other sanctioned DRBGs specified in the guidance. Cryptography expert Bruce Schneier says this is the right action for NIST to take to repair its credibility, even though it was unaware of NSA's algorithm tampering. To read further, please visit http://www.govinfosecurity.com/nist-to-drop-crypto-algorithm-from-guidance-a-6770.