The National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), a partnership between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Security Agency (NSA), has established a program to evaluate conformance of Information Technology (IT) products to international standards. The program is known as the NIAP Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme for Information Technology Security, abbreviated as the Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme (CCEVS), which is responsible for issuing Common Criteria certificates for IT security evaluations. This certificate is issued if the security evaluation has been conducted in accordance with the Scheme requirements using the Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation (Common Criteria or CC) and the Common Methodology for Information Technology Security Evaluation (Common Evaluation Methodology or CEM).