The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have introduced a prize competition for facial recognition software developers, MeriTalk reported Wednesday.

IARPA’s Face Recognition Prize Challenge aims to create technologies that will work to  analyze non-cooperative images wherein the subjects are unaware when the pictures are taken.

Interested developers can register for the challenge through June 15.

Participants will have a chance to win $25,000 for one-to-many identification accuracy software, $20,000 for one-to-one verification accuracy software and $5,000 for one-to-many identification speed software.

IARPA expects to attract developers of automated face recognition technologies from academia and industry to the contest.

The agency is scheduled to unveil the winners Oct. 31.

The Special Operations Command has partnered with the Defense Department‘s Strategic Capabilities Office to establish an organization dedicated to the advancement of drone technologies, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday.

James Geurts, acquisition executive at USSOCOM, told National Defense Magazine that the DRONEWERX outfit will explore the use of artificial intelligence, commercial drone technology, machine learning and swarm technologies to develop combat platforms in the near term.

He added the new organization will experiment with drone technologies in a push to further understand the threat of enemy unmanned systems, according to the publication.

DRONEWERX is modeled after USSOCOM’s SOFWERX program that works to provide opportunities for nontraditional partners in academia and industry to perform experimentation and prototyping missions using modern technology.

Defense News reported Tuesday that DRONEWERX will launch efforts to determine how to achieve function swarming, technological requirements of such swarms and strategies for swarm deployment.

Geurts said that he expects the organization to reach initial capability status in less than 90 days.

The Government Accountability Office has warned that the rapid emergence of internet-of-things technologies could present challenges in the areas of information security, privacy, safety, technical standards and economy.

GAO said Monday it believes unsecure IoT devices, networks or cloud servers in homes, factories and communities can be compromised in a cyber attack.

The agency added that smart devices such as fitness trackers could collect personally identifiable information from users without their consent and such information could be sold to companies and used in ways that consumers did not expect.

IoT-based platforms could also cause economic disruptions such as a decreased need for certain businesses and jobs that require individual interventions, including assembly line work and commercial vehicle deliveries, according to GAO.

GAO urged public and private organizations to develop and implement technical standards to manage  communication between connected devices and systems.

The agency reviewed reports and scientific publications, facilitated two expert meetings with the National Academies and interviewed officials from two agencies as part of the IoT study.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has asked the heads of the Office of Management and Budget and Department of Homeland Security about the measures the agencies have taken in response to the ransomware attack.

In a letter to OMB Director Mick Mulvaney and DHS Secretary John Kelly, Warner asked them to share information whether federal agencies and contractors have implemented the security patches issued for Microsoft Windows operating systems across their information technology systems, the senator’s office said in a news release published Monday.

Europol reported the WannaCry attack disrupted computers of at least 200,000 individuals in more than 150 countries Friday.

Warner, co-founder of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, also asked DHS about its efforts to collaborate with the private sector to evaluate the risks posed by the malware to critical IT systems.

He expects Mulvaney and Kelly to submit their responses on the matter over the next two weeks.

Thomas Bossert, an adviser to President Donald Trump on homeland security and counterterrorism, has said the ransomware attack that affected computer systems worldwide was not carried out using a tool developed the National Security Agency, CNS News reported Monday.

Bossert added he believes that the ransomware worm, dubbed WannaCry or WanaCrypt, was developed by “culpable parties” such as foreign nation-state criminals.

Europol found that the attack disrupted computers of at least 200,000 individuals in more than 150 countries Friday.

Bossert noted the number of infected computers has reached more than 300,000 as of Monday morning, but infection rates have decreased over the weekend and no U.S. federal systems have been affected.

“Overall, the U.S. infection rate has been lower than many parts of the world, but we may still see a significant impact on additional networks as these malware attacks morph and change.”

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly spearheads public-private coordination on the country’s response efforts related to the ransomware attack, according to Bossert.