Archive

national security

Critical Effect 2026

June 17, 2026 9:00 am

Critical Effect 2026

Mark your calendars! The two-day Critical Effect conference is coming back to Washington, DC on June 17 and 18, in partnership with ICS Village and Akin. With 2027 getting closer, we are prioritizing ideas that lead to real, actionable impact.

all-day event, critical infrastructure, energy, healthcare, national security, public safety, resilience, Volt Typhoon, water

January 23, 2026

Giving Tuesday 2025: IST’s Impact

Giving Tuesday 2025: IST’s Impact

Every day, the work we do at IST makes a difference, from driving Congress to consider new approaches to intractable problems, to bringing national security leaders together to ensure they consider the existential threat of AI, to arming K-12 schools with the tools they need to defend against ransomware. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, this is only possible because of the generous support of our partners and donors.

AI, artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, Giving Tuesday, national security, Ransomware

December 2, 2025

The Missing Middle: How to Close America’s Deep-Tech Financing Gap in Strategic Competition with China

The Missing Middle: How to Close America’s Deep-Tech Financing Gap in Strategic Competition with China

The United States and China are locked in competition to finance & deploy foundational technologies that will underwrite economic leadership and ensure national security for decades to come. Building on the prior work of IST’s Strategic Balancing Initiative, "The Missing Middle" digs into the systematic gap between early-stage capital and late-stage financing facing American deep-tech companies and the strengths and weaknesses of China's bifurcated system.

capital, China, deep tech, finance, hardware, national security, quantum, venture capital

October 31, 2025

IST launches the AI Risk Barometer project in partnership with the Future of Life Institute

IST launches the AI Risk Barometer project in partnership with the Future of Life Institute

IST, with support from and in partnership with the Future of Life Institute, is launching the AI Risk Barometer project to elucidate AGI and ASI capability thresholds; potential benefits and harms, including a catastrophic AI loss of control scenario; timelines; the efficacy of potential governance approaches to mitigate risk; and policymakers’ risk appetites given tradeoffs.

AGI, AI, artificial intelligence, ASI, capability threshold, governance, loss of control, national security, risk

October 14, 2025

What Cyber Policy Needs Next: Through the Looking Glass of the Ransomware Task Force – Megan Stifel at CyberNextDC

What Cyber Policy Needs Next: Through the Looking Glass of the Ransomware Task Force – Megan Stifel at CyberNextDC

Megan Stifel delivered keynote remarks at CyberNextDC on October 8, 2025 to view cyber policy 'through the looking glass.' "I think the White House, and Director Cairncross in particular, have a unique opportunity in their forthcoming strategy to let the good flourish, push the bureaucracy to overcome the bad, and lead the country to tackle the ugly," she said.

critical infrastructure, cyber, international collaboration, national security, policy, Ransomware, Salt Typhoon, secure-by-design

October 8, 2025

Announcing the Energy FIRST Initiative at IST, led by Dr. Steven Burns

Announcing the Energy FIRST Initiative at IST, led by Dr. Steven Burns

IST is announcing the launch of Energy FIRST, an initiative to fortify the reliability, affordability, and security of the energy systems that power modern life and national defense, led by IST Vice President for Energy and National Security Dr. Steven Burns.

critical infrastructure, cyber-physical, energy, grid, national security, power, resilience, security

October 6, 2025

Q&A: National security, competition, and risk reduction — AI at IST

Q&A: National security, competition, and risk reduction — AI at IST

As AI models continue to proliferate and gain prominence, what are the cross-sector implications for national security, strategic competitiveness, and more? In this month's edition of the TechnologIST, Lillian Ilsley-Greene sat down with IST AI experts Jennifer Tang, Gabrielle Tran, and Fatima Faisal Khan to hear about how their work addresses the potential risks and opportunities of AI.

AI, antitrust, CFIUS, China, chips, competition, national security, NVIDIA, outbound investment, TechnologIST, venture capital

August 29, 2025

IST Statement on President Trump’s AI Action Plan and Related Executive Orders

IST Statement on President Trump’s AI Action Plan and Related Executive Orders

In February, IST submitted comments in response to the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s request for information on the development of an AI Action Plan. We were heartened to see many of the key issues we raised reflected in the Trump Administration’s recent AI executive orders.

AI, artificial intelligence, chips, compute, distributed energy, energy security, export control, national security, risk reduction

July 25, 2025

IST Launching AI Chip Export Control Initiative with Support from Open Philanthropy

IST Launching AI Chip Export Control Initiative with Support from Open Philanthropy

Malicious actors continue to exploit loopholes to access the powerful microprocessors required to train AI. IST, with support from Open Philanthropy, is launching an effort to investigate compliance failure and develop a framework to strengthen AI chip export policy & enforcement.

AI, chips, dual-use, microprocessors, national security

May 28, 2025

Responding to the Unknown: Simulating AI-Driven Crises

Responding to the Unknown: Simulating AI-Driven Crises

In April, Mariami Tkeshelashvili and Jennifer Tang hosted an AI crisis simulation exercise at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Emerging Technologies Symposium. The hands-on exercise asked participants to explore challenges at the intersection of AI and national security, and used IST’s research to set the stage before diving into immersive crisis scenarios.

AI, cyber, national security, risk reduction, risk-mitigation, scenarios, workshop

May 13, 2025

IST at RSA 2025: Zeroing in on hybrid warfare, ransomware, phishing, and more

IST at RSA 2025: Zeroing in on hybrid warfare, ransomware, phishing, and more

Core to our mission at IST is our belief that we achieve more when industry, government, and civil society come together in pursuit of a common goal. We’re proud to join the global community of cyber experts convening in San Francisco next week for RSA Conference!

artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure, cybercrime, cybersecurity, national security, phishing, Ransomware, systemic defense

April 23, 2025

Setting the Foundation of a New National Strategy on AI: IST Submits Comments on an AI Action Plan

Setting the Foundation of a New National Strategy on AI: IST Submits Comments on an AI Action Plan

Institute for Security and Technology (IST) last week submitted comments to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in response to its request for information on the development of an AI Action Plan. Informed by eight years of working groups, private roundtables, and other engagements with policy policymakers, technologists, and researchers on AI risk reduction, our response puts forth 6 strategic objectives that would serve as the foundation of a new national strategy on AI.

AGI, AI, artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure, genAI, national security, NIST, public safety

March 18, 2025

Managing Misuse Risk for Dual-Use Foundation Models: IST Submits Comments to a NIST Request for Information

Managing Misuse Risk for Dual-Use Foundation Models: IST Submits Comments to a NIST Request for Information

Last week, Institute for Security and Technology (IST) submitted a response to NIST's Request for Comments on the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute's draft guidelines for identifying and mitigating the risks to public safety and national security present across the AI lifecycle.

AI, artificial intelligence, deployment, development, malicious use, misuse, national security, NIST, risk reduction

March 18, 2025

Why Venture Capital is Indispensable for U.S. Industrial Strategy

Why Venture Capital is Indispensable for U.S. Industrial Strategy

In the first episode of the TechnologIST Talks series “The Strategic Edge in Techno-Industrial Competition,” Michael Brown and Pavneet Singh join IST Chief Executive Officer Philip Reiner for a conversation on their plan for harnessing the power of venture capital.

deep tech, DIU, national security, venture capital

November 12, 2024

IST Experts Weigh in on President Biden’s Artificial Intelligence National Security Memorandum

IST Experts Weigh in on President Biden’s Artificial Intelligence National Security Memorandum

We commend the Biden-Harris Administration for releasing its National Memorandum on Advancing the United States’ Leadership in Artificial Intelligence. IST has long supported the nation’s security priorities and technological objectives through our investigation into AI and machine learning in NC3, AI risk reduction, and AI in cybersecurity. We call for safe, secure, and trustworthy AI innovation.

artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, memorandum, national security

October 30, 2024

IST’s Efforts in an Age of AI: An Overview

IST’s Efforts in an Age of AI: An Overview

IST began exploring the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on national security and global stability in 2017. Since then, we have engaged with a diverse array of stakeholders across the AI ecosystem to produce risk mitigation strategies, useful tools and frameworks, and recommendations.

AI, national security, recommendations, risk-mitigation

September 19, 2024