---
id: "entity-nist-d7"
type: "entity"
entityType: "organization"
canonicalName: "National Institute of Standards and Technology"
aliases: ["NIST", "U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology"]
source_timestamps: ["§ Vulnerability to Criminals"]
tags: ["government-agency", "cybersecurity-testing"]
related: ["claim-ai-vulnerable-to-hacking"]
sources: ["governance"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-governance"
originDay: 7
articleStem: "hbr-cl-88-can-ai-agents-be-trusted"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/05/can-ai-agents-be-trusted"
sourceTitle: "Can AI Agents Be Trusted?"
---
# U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a government standards agency that, alongside private Internet-security firms, is cited as conducting regular security tests on leading LLMs and agent technologies. Their simulated hacks are the authors' evidence for [[claim-ai-vulnerable-to-hacking]], having revealed significant ongoing security flaws in even the most secure models.

**Enrichment caveat:** the supplied sources support NIST's general role in AI standards, measurement, and risk frameworks, but do not independently substantiate the specific claim of routine 'simulated hacks' repeatedly proving easy compromise; that empirical detail needs a direct primary citation.