Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 Core Guidance Documents

TIC 3.0 core guidance documents are intended to be used collectively in order to achieve the goals of the program. The documents are additive; each builds on the other like chapters in a book. The final core guidance is available below.

The latest updates were made December 22, 2023, to Security Capabilities Catalog, Branch Office Use Case, Remote User Use Case, Cloud Use Case, and the Response to Comments on Cloud Use Case.

The TIC 3.0 core guidance are sequential in nature and include:

1. Program Guidebook (Volume 1) (PDF, 1.79) – Outlines the modernized TIC program and includes its historical context.
2. Reference Architecture (Volume 2) (PDF, 1.34 MB) – Defines the concepts of the program to guide and constrain the diverse implementations of the security capabilities.
3. Security Capabilities Catalog (Volume 3) (PDF, 1.1 MB) – Indexes security capabilities relevant to TIC.
4. Use Case Handbook (Volume 4) (PDF, 985.45 KB) – Introduces use cases, which describe an implementation of TIC for each identified use.
5. Overlay Handbook (Volume 5) (PDF, 1.35 MB) – Introduces overlays, which map the security functions of a vendor to the TIC capabilities.

The current TIC use cases available, as generally described by the Use Case Handbook, are:

• Traditional TIC Use Case (PDF, 5.34 MB) – Describes the architecture and security capabilities guidance for the conventional TIC implementation.
• Branch Office Use Case (PDF, 1.55 MB) – Describes the architecture and security capabilities guidance for remote offices.
• Remote User Use Case (PDF, 2.13 MB) – Describes the architecture and security capabilities guidance for remote users.
• Cloud Use Case (PDF, 3.41 MB) – Describes the architecture and security considerations for deploying different cloud services.