#nist

#nist

A NIST employee tells WIRED that some plans to bring on foreign workers through the agency's Professional Research and Experience Program have recently been canceled because of uncertainty about whether they would make it through the new security protocols. The staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, says the agency has yet to widely communicate what the new hurdles will be or why it believes they are justified.

One of the US government's top scientific research labs is taking steps that could drive away foreign scientists, a shift lawmakers and sources tell WIRED could cost the country valuable expertise and damage the agency's credibility. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) helps determine the frameworks underpinning everything from cybersecurity to semiconductor manufacturing. Some of NIST's recent work includes establishing guidelines for securing AI systems and identifying health concerns with air purifiers and firefighting gloves.

We all agree here that, you know, technology and innovation is critical, and government plays a role in that,

"The lapse \"resulted in NIST UTC [universal coordinated time] being 4.8 microseconds slower than it should have been,\" NIST spokesperson Rebecca Jacobson said in an email. That's just under 5 millionths of a second. To understand just how brief an instant that is, Jacobson noted that it takes a person about 350,000 microseconds to blink."

The same tools that help defenders spot anomalies, detect intrusions and speed up response times are also making it easier for adversaries to scale and automate their attacks. AI can generate code to patch vulnerabilities, or it can exploit vulnerabilities whenever it finds them. It can help identify phishing attempts or draft realistic attacks designed to trick even the most savvy recipients.

The project aims to capture and catalog the moon's reflected light with unparalleled precision for satellite calibration.

Researchers identified 139 novel methods to cause AI systems to misbehave, including generating misinformation and leaking personal data, during a red teaming exercise.