NIST has used this authority to award personal services contracts to obtain the services of individuals.

In the new demonstration, NIST researchers repeatedly performed a combined sequence of five quantum logic operations and ten transport operations while reliably maintaining the 0s and 1s of the binary data stored in the ions, which serve as quantum bits (qubits) for a hypothetical quantum computer, and retaining the ability to subsequently manipulate this information.

When NIST released the final version of its “Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations,” it called the publication “historic in nature," hailing the guidelines as a critical component of the federal cybersecurity effort, potentially shaping the security approach of all unclassified federal IT systems.