National Cybersecurity FFRDC

Focusing on the risk cyber attacks pose to prosperity, privacy, and security

Today there are more internet-connected devices than people. New and innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and 5G networks are entering our economy and infrastructure at a rapid pace, transforming how we live and work. The U.S. government and industry must adopt better ways to use these technologies securely.

That’s where the National Cybersecurity Federally Funded Research and Development Center (NCF) fills a critical need. Operated by MITRE, the NCF is the country’s only FFRDC dedicated solely to cybersecurity.

The NCF is sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—the federal agency that develops cybersecurity standards, guidelines, and best practices. Together, we support NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence—a state-of-the-art collaborative hub where government, industry, and academia are building practical solutions to meet the real challenges businesses face each day.

We’re focused on the serious and growing risk cyber attacks pose to economic prosperity, public safety, and national security. The NCF brings multidisciplinary teams of cybersecurity architects, engineers, social scientists, and communications professionals together with NIST to design and build usable, real-world solutions.

Our goal: improve organizations’ ability to identify, protect, detect, respond to, and recover from cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

These targeted solutions—documented in the groundbreaking NIST Special Publication 1800 series—are helping to protect banks, hospitals, utilities, hotels, governments, and small businesses, and the people they serve using commercially available technology.

We also lead multiple industry-wide initiatives to further cybersecurity capabilities. We’re a founding member of the Space Information Sharing and Advisory Committee that’s identifying threats and vulnerabilities facing the space industry. We tackle health-related cybersecurity concerns in areas such as telehealth, human-connected devices, and distributed access to medical records. And we are working across government and industry to understand the impact of artificial intelligence on cybersecurity.

Additionally, we’re investing resources to advance projects that address today's—and tomorrow's—cybersecurity challenges, such as:

Implementing zero trust architectures to enhance network protection
Strengthening digital identity protection and privacy
Fostering academic partnerships to grow the cybersecurity workforce

Above all, our trusted relationships with government, industry, and academia allow us to drive the collaboration needed for greater security in cyberspace—and in our daily lives.