FIPS 140-3 (Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 140-3) is a U.S. government security standard for cryptographic modules. If your organization is required to follow this standard to meet compliance or regulatory requirements, you can configure NetIM to run in a FIPS 140-3 compliant mode.

This mode ensures that NetIM uses only cryptographic modules approved under FIPS 140-3, by integrating the Bouncy Castle FIPS library (FIPS certificate #4743). You can view the certificate here: https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/cryptographic-module-validation-program/certificate/4743.

You should enable FIPS 140-3 mode only if your organization requires it for compliance.

If you're simply looking to improve security, this setting isn’t the right tool—FIPS mode follows strict government standards and is not customizable for non-compliance use cases. Leaving it off will still allow NetIM to function securely in standard environments.