The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a concept paper and proposed action plan for Special Publication, or SP, 800-53: Control Overlays for Securing AI Systems.
NIST Publishes Guide for AI Security Control Overlays
The concept paper, published Thursday, provides security control overlays to enable organizations to manage cyber risks associated with artificial intelligence development and use. The document provides examples of use cases for generative AI, predictive AI, and single and multi-agent AI within an organization.
For instance, organizations may deploy AI agent systems to serve as enterprise copilot, which can assist in menial tasks like creating calendar entries or streamlining workflows.
The agency plans to issue a series of overlays dedicated to securing artificial intelligence systems using SP 800-53 controls, SP 800-218A, Draft NIST AI 800-1 and NIST AI 100-2e2025.
NIST Seeking Public Feedback
NIST launched a Slack channel to support its AI overlay projects. By joining the online community, organizations can discuss the overlays, receive updates and provide real-time feedback.
In addition to the Slack channel, interested parties may submit their comments, questions and suggestions via email to overlays-securing-ai@list.nist.gov.
The agency specifically wants to hear insights into how its can prioritize overlay development for various use cases, additional use cases that should be included in future publications and how well the document represent types of AI adoption in the real world.
