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.

The Department of Homeland Security invites commercial, academic and government organizations to participate in a new technology demonstration and assessment program that seeks to address the capability gaps facing urban emergency response communities.

DHS’ science and technology directorate plans to hold an event this October in an effort to find emerging technologies that city first responders can potentially use in the event of a critical situation, the department said in a FedBizOpps notice published April 21.

The directorate will collaborate with New York City-based emergency response agencies to review capability gaps and potential technologies as part of the DHS S&T Urban Operational Experimentation program, according to the department.

DHS will accept technology demonstration applications from the public and private sectors until May 13.

Desired capabilities for the Urban OpEx initiative include incident management, communications and tracking, counter-unmanned aircraft, optical head-up display, wide-angle thermal imaging camera, video analytics and handheld mobile detection and collection systems.

The White House’s office of science and technology policy will conduct a series of four public workshops to discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with the adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools.

Ed Felten, deputy chief technology officer at the White House, wrote in a blog entry posted Tuesday that OSTP will co-host the events with the National Economic Council, nonprofit organizations and academic institutions between May 24 and July 7 in Washington, New York City, Seattle and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The White House will use input from the workshops to draft a public report later this year, he said.

Felten also noted that a subpanel of the National Science and Technology Council will hold its initial meeting by the second week of May to discuss technological advancements in the field of AI and machine learning.

He said the NSTC’s subcommittee on machine learning and AI will also work to leverage such platforms to change the way federal agencies deliver government services to the public.

The U.S. Air Force is looking at ways to connect Apple iPads on the Defense Department‘s classified network, USAF Chief Technology Officer Frank Konieczny told FCW in an interview posted Tuesday.

Sean Lyngaas writes that Air Force CTO Frank Konieczny discussed with FCW how new developments in mobile device security and features built to organize information work to integrate iPads to Air Force networks.

Konieczny said the Air Force’s IT governance body will further investigate a proposed trial deployment of iPads on NIPRNet — DOD’s unclassified network — and work on a pilot project to start in the summer or fall.

The service branch will run security tests on the product before it is introduced into Air Force networks due to potential risks posed by iPad electronic transmissions, the report added.