Random ideas sought to improve cryptography

America’s National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) is looking for public input into its long-running project to improve cryptography.

The recommendation NIST’s put up for discussion covers the design principles and requirements for random bit generators, and tests to validate entropy sources.

It’s the entropy validation that NIST regards as most important in Special Publication 800-90B: rather than trying to tell crypto designers what crypto sources to use, it wants reliable ways to check the outputs.