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VA Technical Reference Model v 24.7

Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) Statistics

General Information

Technologies must be operated and maintained in accordance with Federal and Department security and privacy policies and guidelines. More information on the proper use of the TRM can be found on the TRM Proper Use Tab/Section.

Website:	Go to site
Description:	SPSS Statistics is a comprehensive system for analyzing data. This technology can take data from various types of files and use them to generate tabulated reports, charts and plots of distributions and trends, descriptive statistics, and complex statistical analyses. This technology addresses the entire statistical analysis process, including planning, data collection, analysis, and reporting. SPSS Statistics is available in a base version and three editions: Standard, Professional, and Premium. SPSS Statistics Base provides a range of statistical procedures suitable for many problems, including crosstabs, linear regression, Monte Carlo simulation, geospatial analytics, and the ability to extend built-in capabilities with Python, R, or Java code. SPSS Statistics Standard includes techniques such as logistic and non-linear regression and presentation quality custom tables to help business managers and analysts. SPSS Statistics Professional addresses non-standard analyses and issues such as data quality and automation with features such as automatic data preparation, decision trees and forecasting. SPSS Statistics Premium supports enterprise businesses needing advanced techniques such as structural equation modeling (SEM), sampling assessment and testing, and small sample and rare occurrence analysis. This assessment is for all editions of SPSS Statistics as all have the same base capabilities. SPSS Statistics can read and write to external relational database tables via Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Structured Query Language (SQL). This technology supports various databases including: DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL database, and Oracle database. Also, information stored in a data file can be encrypted with a password. Once encrypted, the file can only be opened by providing the password.
Technology/Standard Usage Requirements:	Users must ensure their use of this technology/standard is consistent with VA policies and standards, including, but not limited to, VA Handbooks 6102 and 6500; VA Directives 6004, 6513, and 6517; and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards, including Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Users must ensure sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. Prior to use of this technology, users should check with their supervisor, Information Security Officer (ISO), Facility Chief Information Officer (CIO), or local Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) representative to ensure that all actions are consistent with current VA policies and procedures prior to implementation.
Section 508 Information:	This technology has not been assessed by the Section 508 Office. The Implementer of this technology has the responsibility to ensure the version deployed is 508-compliant. Section 508 compliance may be reviewed by the Section 508 Office and appropriate remedial action required if necessary. For additional information or assistance regarding Section 508, please contact the Section 508 Office at Section508@va.gov.
Decision:	View Decisions

Decision Source:	TRM Mgmt Group
Decision Process:	One-VA TRM v22.9
Decision Date:	09/23/2022 at 21:34:58 UTC
Aliases:	Statistical Package for the Social Sciences; SPSS; IBM SPSS Statistics
Introduced By:	TRM Request
Vendor Name:	International Business Machines (IBM)

Vendor Release Information

The Vendor Release table provides the known releases for the TRM Technology, obtained from the vendor (or from the release source).

Version	Release Date	Vendor End of Life Date	Vendor Desupport Date
18	08/01/2009	09/30/2012	09/30/2011
19	08/01/2010	09/30/2015	09/30/2015
20	08/01/2011	03/10/2016	04/30/2017
21	08/21/2012	07/11/2017	09/30/2018
21.1	11/12/2012
22.0	08/13/2013
23	03/10/2015
24	03/15/2016
25	08/08/2017
26	04/09/2019
27	06/16/2020
28	08/01/2021
29	09/12/2022

Current Decision Matrix (09/22/2022)

Users must ensure their use of this technology/standard is consistent with VA policies and standards, including, but not limited to, VA Handbooks 6102 and 6500; VA Directives 6004, 6513, and 6517; and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards, including Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Users must ensure sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. Prior to use of this technology, users should check with their supervisor, Information Security Officer (ISO), Facility Chief Information Officer (CIO), or local Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) representative to ensure that all actions are consistent with current VA policies and procedures prior to implementation.

The VA Decision Matrix displays the current and future VA IT position regarding different releases of a TRM entry. These decisions are based upon the best information available as of the most current date. The consumer of this information has the responsibility to consult the organizations responsible for the desktop, testing, and/or production environments to ensure that the target version of the technology will be supported. Any major.minor version that is not listed in the VA Decision Matrix is considered unapproved for use.

Legend:

White	Approved: The technology/standard has been approved for use.
Yellow	Approved w/Constraints: The technology/standard can be used within the specified constraints located below the decision matrix in the footnote[1] and on the General tab.
Gray	Unapproved: This technology or standard can be used only if a POA&M review is conducted and signed by the Authorizing Official Designated Representative (AODR) as designated by the Authorizing Official (AO) or designee and based upon a recommendation from the POA&M Compliance Enforcement, has been granted to the project team or organization that wishes to use the technology.
Orange	Divest: VA has decided to divest itself on the use of the technology/standard. As a result, all projects currently utilizing the technology/standard must plan to eliminate their use of the technology/standard. Additional information on when the entry is projected to become unapproved may be found on the Decision tab for the specific entry.
Black	Prohibited: The technology/standard is not (currently) permitted to be used under any circumstances.
Blue	Planning/Evaluation Constraint:The period of time this technology is currently being evaluated, reviewed, and tested in controlled environments. Use of this technology is strictly controlled and not available for use within the general population. If a customer would like to use this technology, please work with your local or Regional OI&T office and contact the appropriate evaluation office displayed in the notes below the decision matrix. The Local or Regional OI&T office should submit an inquiry to the TRM if they require further assistance or if the evaluating office is not listed in the notes below.

Release/Version Information:

VA decisions for specific versions may include a ‘.x’ wildcard, which denotes a decision that pertains to a range of multiple versions.

For example, a technology approved with a decision for 7.x would cover any version of 7.(Anything) - 7.(Anything). However, a 7.4.x decision would cover any version of 7.4.(Anything), but would not cover any version of 7.5.x or 7.6.x on the TRM.

VA decisions for specific versions may include ‘+’ symbols; which denotes that the decision for the version specified also includes versions greater than what is specified but is not to exceed or affect previous decimal places.

For example, a technology approved with a decision for 12.6.4+ would cover any version that is greater than 12.6.4, but would not exceed the .6 decimal ie: 12.6.401 is ok, 12.6.5 is ok, 12.6.9 is ok, however 12.7.0 or 13.0 is not.

<Past

CY2021

CY2022

CY2023

Future>

Release

Unapproved

21.1

Unapproved

22.0

Unapproved

Divest
[4, 10, 11, 12]

Unapproved

Divest
[4, 10, 11, 12]

Unapproved

Approved w/Constraints
[4, 10, 11, 12]

Divest
[4, 10, 11, 12]

Divest
[4, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]

Divest
[13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Unapproved

Approved w/Constraints
[4, 10, 11, 12]

Divest
[4, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]

Divest
[13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Divest
[13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21]

Unapproved

Approved w/Constraints
[4, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]

Approved w/Constraints
[13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Approved w/Constraints
[13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21]

Decision Constraints


[1]	Projects using this technology must meet Veterans Affairs (VA) Directive 6500 and implement Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS 199) for all laptop devices and National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-53 for all desktop devices when VA sensitive information is involved, or additional mitigating controls must be documented in an approved System Security Plan (SSP) to prevent potential disclosure of PII/PHI data. Additionally, projects which interface with external VA partners must have a Memorandum of Understanding and Interconnection Security Agreements (MOU/ISA), which detail the security requirements for users and systems that share information and resources outside of the VA production network.

[2]	As of April 23, 2015, per the Deputy CIO of Architecture, Strategy and Design (ASD), all technologies in use by the VA require an assessment by the VA Section 508 office. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 is a federal law that sets the guidelines for technology accessibility. A VA Section 508 assessment of this technology has not been completed at the time of publication. Therefore, as of April 23, 2015 only users of this technology who have deployed the technology to the production environment, or have project design and implementation plans approved, may continue to operate this technology. In the case of a project that has implemented, or been approved for a specific site or number of users, and that project needs to expand operations to other sites or to an increased user base, it may do so as long as the project stays on the existing version of the technology that was approved or implemented as of April 22, 2015. Use of this technology in all other cases is prohibited.

[3]	Veterans Affairs (VA) users must ensure VA sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed by the local ISO (Information Security Officer) to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500.

[4]	Due to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) identified security vulnerabilities, extra vigilance should be applied to ensure the versions remain properly patched to mitigate known and future vulnerabilities. The local ISO can provide assistance in reviewing the NIST vulnerabilities.

[5]	If free trialware is utilized, the software must be purchased or removed at the end of the trial period.

[6]	Per the May 5th, 2015 memorandum from the VA Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) FIPS 140-2 Validate Full Disk Encryption (FOE) for Data at Rest in Database Management Systems (DBMS) and in accordance with Federal requirements and VA policy, database management must use Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 compliant encryption to protect the confidentiality and integrity of VA information at rest at the application level. If FIPS 140-2 encryption at the application level is not technically possible, FIPS 140-2 compliant full disk encryption (FOE) must be implemented on the hard drive where the DBMS resides. Appropriate access enforcement and physical security control must also be implemented. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500 and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. It is the responsibility of the system owner to work with the local CIO (or designee) and Information Security Officer (ISO) to ensure that a compliant DBMS technology is selected and that if needed, mitigating controls are in place and documented in a System Security Plan (SSP).

[7]	Per the May 5th, 2015 memorandum from the VA Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) FIPS 140-2 Validate Full Disk Encryption (FOE) for Data at Rest in Database Management Systems (DBMS) and in accordance with Federal requirements and VA policy, database management must use Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 compliant encryption to protect the confidentiality and integrity of VA information at rest at the application level. If FIPS 140-2 encryption at the application level is not technically possible, FIPS 140-2 compliant full disk encryption (FOE) must be implemented on the hard drive where the DBMS resides. Appropriate access enforcement and physical security control must also be implemented. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500 and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. It is the responsibility of the system owner to work with the local CIO (or designee) and Information Security Officer (ISO) to ensure that a compliant DBMS technology is selected and that if needed, mitigating controls are in place and documented in a System Security Plan (SSP).

[8]	Veterans Affairs (VA) users must ensure VA sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed by the local ISO (Information Security Officer) to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500.

[9]	If free trialware is utilized, the software must be purchased or removed at the end of the trial period. This product can be configured with a MySQL Database, which at the time of writing has TRM constraints for intranet use only due to its many known security issues. If MySQL is selected for use with this product, these factors should be considered especially when an instance of this product will be considered a Moderate or High Risk system. Please refer to the MySQL Database TRM entry for more details.

[10]	If free trialware is utilized, the software must be purchased or removed at the end of the trial period. Users must ensure that Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Structured Query Language (SQL) Server, and Oracle Database are implemented within VA-approved baselines. This product can be configured with a MySQL Database, which at the time of writing has TRM constraints for intranet use only due to its many known security issues. If MySQL is selected for use with this product, these factors should be considered especially when an instance of this product will be considered a Moderate or High Risk system. Please refer to the MySQL Database TRM entry for more details. Additionally, My Structured Query Language (MySQL) Database - Community Editions is currently unapproved in the TRM, and users will need to utilize the Commercial edition if using MySQL.

[11]	Veterans Affairs (VA) users must ensure VA sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed by the local ISO (Information Security Officer) to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500.

[12]	Per the May 5th, 2015 memorandum from the VA Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) FIPS 140-2 Validate Full Disk Encryption (FOE) for Data at Rest in Database Management Systems (DBMS) and in accordance with Federal requirements and VA policy, database management must use Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 compliant encryption to protect the confidentiality and integrity of VA information at rest at the application level. If FIPS 140-2 encryption at the application level is not technically possible, FIPS 140-2 compliant full disk encryption (FOE) must be implemented on the hard drive where the DBMS resides. Appropriate access enforcement and physical security control must also be implemented. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500 and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. It is the responsibility of the system owner to work with the local CIO (or designee) and Information Security Officer (ISO) to ensure that a compliant DBMS technology is selected and that if needed, mitigating controls are in place and documented in a System Security Plan (SSP).

[13]	If free trialware is utilized, the software must be purchased or removed at the end of the trial period. Users must ensure that Microsoft Structured Query Language (SQL) Server and Oracle Database are implemented within VA-approved baselines.

[14]	Users should check with their supervisor, Information Security Office (ISO) or local OIT representative for permission to download and use this software. Downloaded software must always be scanned for viruses prior to installation to prevent adware or malware. Freeware may only be downloaded directly from the primary site that the creator of the software has advertised for public download and user or development community engagement. Users should note, any attempt by the installation process to install any additional, unrelated software is not approved and the user should take the proper steps to decline those installations.

[15]	If this product uses a MySQL database, the product must be configured with a commercial edition of the MySQL Database, which currently has TRM constraints limiting its use for intranet and non-sensitive data only due to its many known security issues. If a commercial edition of MySQL is selected for use with this product, these factors must be considered especially when an instance of this product will be considered a Moderate or High-Risk system. See MySQL Database – Commercial Edition TRM entry for more details.

[16]	This technology has received one or more VA security bulletins that provide specific guidance on vulnerability patching and mitigation. It is the responsibility of VA system owners to ensure that the appropriate mitigations are taken to address all known and future discovered vulnerabilities with this product. See the Reference tab for more information on security bulletins related to this product.

[17]	Veterans Affairs (VA) users must ensure VA sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed by the local ISSO (Information System Security Officer) to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500.

[18]	Users should check with their supervisor, Information System Security Officer (ISSO) or local OIT representative for permission to download and use this software. Downloaded software must always be scanned for viruses prior to installation to prevent adware or malware. Freeware may only be downloaded directly from the primary site that the creator of the software has advertised for public download and user or development community engagement. Users should note, any attempt by the installation process to install any additional, unrelated software is not approved and the user should take the proper steps to decline those installations.

[19]	Due to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) identified security vulnerabilities, extra vigilance should be applied to ensure the versions remain properly patched to mitigate known and future vulnerabilities. The local ISSO (Information System Security Officer) can provide assistance in reviewing the NIST vulnerabilities.

[20]	Per the May 5th, 2015 memorandum from the VA Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) FIPS 140-2 Validate Full Disk Encryption (FOE) for Data at Rest in Database Management Systems (DBMS) and in accordance with Federal requirements and VA policy, database management must use Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 compliant encryption to protect the confidentiality and integrity of VA information at rest at the application level. If FIPS 140-2 encryption at the application level is not technically possible, FIPS 140-2 compliant full disk encryption (FOE) must be implemented on the hard drive where the DBMS resides. Appropriate access enforcement and physical security control must also be implemented. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed to ensure compliance with VA Handbook 6500 and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. It is the responsibility of the system owner to work with the local CIO (or designee) and Information System Security Officer (ISSO) to ensure that a compliant DBMS technology is selected and that if needed, mitigating controls are in place and documented in a System Security Plan (SSP).

[21]	Veterans Affairs (VA) users must ensure VA sensitive data is properly protected in compliance with all VA regulations. All instances of deployment using this technology should be reviewed by the local ISSO (Information System Security Officer) to ensure compliance with both VA Handbook 6500 and VA Directive 6500.

Note: This list may not be complete. No component, listed or unlisted, may be used outside of the technology in which it is released. The usage decision for a component is found in the Decision and Decision Constraints.
Name	Description
Extension Commands	This component is for add-ons that work like standard syntax.
Python modules	This component is for use in writing Python programs.
SPSS .NET	This component is for use with the SPSS Statistics .NET plug-in.
SPSS Graphical Utilities	This component is for use with SPSS Statistics and other SPSS products.
Statistical Utilities	This component is for use with SPSS Statistics and may be standard syntax, Python programs, and R programs.


Information Management Technologies Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse Platforms	Data Analytics (Statistical Analysis, Prediction, and Modeling)

- The information contained on this page is accurate as of the Decision Date (09/23/2022 at 21:34:58 UTC).

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VA Technical Reference Model v 24.7

General Information

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Current Decision Matrix (09/22/2022)

Decision Constraints

References

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VA Technical Reference Model v 24.7

General Information

Vendor Release Information

Current Decision Matrix (09/22/2022)

Decision Constraints

References

Technology Components

VA Categories View the VA Categorization Framework

Operating Systems Supported by the Technology

Technologies/Standards Relationships

Runtime Dependencies:

Comparable Technologies:

Companion Technologies/Supported Standards:

General Analysis

Adoption Benefits

Adoption Risks

Architectural Benefits

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