Some government and commercial security experts who took part in a Small Business Administration-hosted panel discussion Monday said that small businesses should implement programs to protect their critical assets from cyber threats, FedTech Magazine reported Tuesday.

Phil Goldstein writes Douglas Kramer, SBA deputy administrator, moderated the panel and told audience an SBA study found that nearly half of small businesses have experienced cyber attacks at some point.

Kramer added the agency collaborated with the Energy Department and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct cybersecurity training sessions for the small business community, according to the report.

Pat Toth, supervisory computer scientist at NIST’s computer security division, urged companies to utilize information technology security resources from the institute as well as the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Trade Commission.

Stephen Cobb, a senior security researcher at ESET North America, and Matt Littleton, a cybersecurity director at Microsoft, said at the forum that cloud service providers can help companies secure their systems.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a new draft publication that proposes to incorporate security concepts into the systems engineering stage of cyber-physical systems in an effort to protect these assets from threats.

NIST said Wednesday the publication recommends the inclusion of security factors to the original design throughout a system’s lifecycle for developers of smartphones, industrial systems and process control systems.

“The systems security engineering considerations in NIST SP 800-160 give organizations the capability to strengthen their systems against cyberattacks, limit the damage from those attacks if they occur, and make their systems survivable,” said Ron Ross, NIST fellow.

Ross told an Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology forum in April the framework represents the agency’s holistic approach and strategy to help the government combat cyber attacks.

The security principles outlined in the draft apply to engineering design, system analysis, implementation and non-engineering processes.

NIST intends for the security considerations in the draft to address modern versions of manufacturing systems, environmental monitoring devices and the Internet of Things sensors.

The agency incorporated comments submitted for the first draft published in May 2014 and the agency seeks public feedback for the new draft no later than July 1.

The Federal Aviation Administration will form a broad-based drone advisory committee to provide insights on unmanned aircraft system integration challenges.

The FAA said Wednesday that the committee will act as a long-term spinoff of the stakeholder-based and temporary UAS registration task force and micro-UAS aviation rulemaking committee.

“Input from stakeholders is critical to our ability to achieve that perfect balance between integration and safety,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s XPONENTIAL 2016 conference in New Orleans, where he announced the new committee.

Huerta has appointed Intel CEO Brian Krzanich to chair the DAC, which will aid in the identification and prioritization of integration challenges as well as establish support for an overall integration strategy.

The administration will also open UAS operations to students and faculty members for educational and research purposes provided that the participants follow rules for model aircraft, FAA added.

Huerta said the change aims to drive innovation.