Jerry Cuomo, vice president of blockchain technology at IBM, has said lawmakers should help advance the integration of blockchain technology into existing government programs in order to accelerate the adoption of the technology, Business Insider reported Saturday.

“There is an opportunity for the United States to build upon its momentum to lead blockchain by doing,” Cuomo said in his testimony at a Feb. 14 congressional hearing.

“We should focus our efforts on projects that can positively impact U.S. economic competitiveness, citizens, and businesses,” he noted at the Congressional Blockchain Caucus-hosted hearing.

Cuomo also cited the potential applications of blockchain technology in drug development, digital identities and other federal government programs.

The Justice Department has formed a task force to examine how federal law enforcement organizations can help address cybersecurity threats.

DOJ said Tuesday Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the Cyber-Digital Task Force to produce a report about critical infrastructure interference efforts, internet misuse, information theft, internet-based law enforcement avoidance and cyber exploitation activities that target people and businesses in the country.

“The internet has given us amazing new tools that help us work, communicate and participate in our economy, but these tools can also be exploited by criminals, terrorists and enemy governments,” Sessions said in a statement.

He added the group will advise him on methods for the department to confront security challenges in cyberspace.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will appoint a senior DOJ official to lead the task force that will consist of officials from the department’s criminal and national security divisions as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office community, the Office of Legal Policy, the Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties and the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

Representatives from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and U.S. Marshals Service will also serve as members of the task force.

Rosenstein also holds the authority to form subcommittees within the group or recruit additional members from other department components.

Sessions expects to receive the group’s report by the end of June.

The National Aeronautic Association has selected an Office of Naval Research-led autonomous helicopter flight demonstration program as a finalist for the nonprofit organization’s Robert J. Collier Trophy.

ONR partnered with Boeing‘s Aurora Flight Sciences subsidiary to develop the Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System in an effort to accelerate the delivery of ammunition, equipment, food, water, medical supplies and fuel to Marines in the field, the office said Feb. 13.

AACUS consists of sensors and software designed to provide flight, routing, obstacle detection, takeoff and landing capacities needed for a helicopter to operate autonomously.

Users of the autonomus technology can manage AACUS-equipped helicopters with a handheld tablet, ONR noted.

The system was tested on a UH-1 helicopter at a U.S. Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, in December.

ONR said it will transition the program to USMC for further development and experimentation of the system.

NAA also named multiple projects at Boeing, Edwards Air Force Base and NASA among other finalists for the Robert J. Collier Trophy.

The association is scheduled to announce the winner on March 23.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s information technology subcommittee conducted the first session of a three-part hearing series about artificial intelligence Wednesday.

Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) said in a statement published Wednesday the subcommittee will meet with several industry professionals and government stakeholders in an effort to establish criteria that can help agencies adopt AI platforms.

Subcommittee members also seek to identify potential advantages and challenges of the technology through the hearing series.

Amir Khosrowshahi, vice president and chief technology officer at Intel‘s artificial intelligence products group, and Ian Buck, vice president and general manager at Nvidia‘s Tesla data center business, will speak at the meetings.

Charles Isbell, senior associate dean at Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, and Oren Etzioni, CEO at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, will also participate in the hearings.

An interagency group has released a draft report that examines the current state of the development and implementation of international cybersecurity standards for internet of things-based systems, components and services.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology said the draft report by the international cybsersecurity standards working group describes five IoT technology application areas in order to gather insights on the current status of cybersecurity standardization for IoT.

Those areas are connected vehicles; consumer IoT; health IoT and medical devices; smart buildings; and smart manufacturing.

The draft document identifies possible gaps in cyber standards such as the application of blockchain technology in cryptographic mechanisms; adoption of best practices for remediation in the cyber incident management area; implementation of best practices to prevent malware threats in firmware and software.

The report also calls on agencies to take part in the development of cyber standards and identify appropriate standards in procurements.

Agencies should also collaborate with industry to support the development of conformity evaluation schemes to the requirements in such cyber standards, the report noted.

The working group will accept public comments on the draft report through April 18.