Apologies for turning to semantics, but I think the confusion is over what "confidence in" means. I think you mean something closer to "respect for". I'm not su

Apologies for turning to semantics, but I think the confusion is over what "confidence in" means. I think you mean something closer to "respect for". I'm not sure I agree, but I'm not well enough informed to argue the point. Generally, having confidence in something means that you think there's a high probability it will deliver good results, for whatever value "good results" has in that context (e.g. having confidence in a sports team is believing that they'll win). The purpose of NIST isn't to try to do the right thing, or to be competent, or any of that; it's to create good technologic standards. If you're skeptical that they can do that effectively job effectively, regardless of why, then you're not confident in them. To clarify all that, I'm not arguing your point as I now understand it; I'm just suggesting why you've found some opposition to it as you stated it.