{
  "schema_version": "1.2.0",
  "rubric_version": "1.1",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)",
  "record": {
    "id": "O-0210",
    "slug": "intelligence-security-laboratories",
    "title": "Intelligence Security Laboratories",
    "aliases": [
      "ISL"
    ],
    "status": "published",
    "last_reviewed": "2026-09-25",
    "review_interval_days": 90,
    "steward": null,
    "provenance": {
      "drafted_by": "ai",
      "reviewed_by": [
        "codex-review"
      ]
    },
    "risk_flags": [],
    "flags": [],
    "kind": "research-org",
    "homepage": "https://intelligencesecuritylaboratories.org/",
    "one_liner": "A nonprofit lab that researches and builds high-security AI systems, including secure data centres.",
    "sources": [
      {
        "source": "S-1706",
        "supports": "nonprofit research lab and 501(c)(3) status; aim; threat of tampering and theft; integrator role; STPA-Sec and formal methods; hand-off of knowledge and artifacts; refers to the RAND report for STPA-Sec"
      },
      {
        "source": "S-1707",
        "supports": "executive director, staff director and technical director; executive director's earlier RAND fellowship"
      },
      {
        "source": "S-1510",
        "supports": "G. Kulp is a co-author of the RAND secure inference data center report"
      }
    ],
    "type": "organization",
    "url": "https://trustbutveri.fyi/organizations/intelligence-security-laboratories/",
    "source_file": "content/organizations/intelligence-security-laboratories.md",
    "flags_all": [],
    "body_markdown": "Intelligence Security Laboratories (ISL) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research lab that describes its focus as \"implementation-driven R&D for high-security AI systems\" [[S-1706]]. It aims to build and demonstrate the security that critical AI deployments will need, and names tampering with or theft of a model by nation-state actors, other AIs or the model itself as the threats [[S-1706]]; see [[C-0009]].\n\nIts stated approach:\n\n- ISL argues that studying each component in depth will not show that a data centre is secure as a whole system, so it aims to be the integrator for the whole problem [[S-1706]].\n- It applies STPA-Sec (Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis for Security), a system design method that emphasises unknown-unknown attack vectors, and uses formal methods wherever it can [[S-1706]]. For details of STPA-Sec, it points to RAND's [[I-0010|secure inference data center design]] [[S-1706]].\n- It plans to hand the knowledge and technical artifacts it produces to other actors, and states that it does not expect to become the world's producer of secure compute [[S-1706]].\n\nIts executive director, Gabriel Kulp, is a co-author of the RAND report [[S-1510]] [[S-1707]]. Before founding ISL, he was a fellow at RAND working on hardware-enabled governance mechanisms for GPU export controls and on international verification of agreements [[S-1707]]. Tom Gardiner is ISL's staff director and Paul Murley its technical director [[S-1707]].",
    "body_text": "Intelligence Security Laboratories (ISL) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research lab that describes its focus as \"implementation-driven R&D for high-security AI systems\" [S-1706]. It aims to build and demonstrate the security that critical AI deployments will need, and names tampering with or theft of a model by nation-state actors, other AIs or the model itself as the threats [S-1706]; see Model weights have not left the facility. Its stated approach: - ISL argues that studying each component in depth will not show that a data centre is secure as a whole system, so it aims to be the integrator for the whole problem [S-1706]. - It applies STPA-Sec (Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis for Security), a system design method that emphasises unknown-unknown attack vectors, and uses formal methods wherever it can [S-1706]. For details of STPA-Sec, it points to RAND's secure inference data center design [S-1706]. - It plans to hand the knowledge and technical artifacts it produces to other actors, and states that it does not expect to become the world's producer of secure compute [S-1706]. Its executive director, Gabriel Kulp, is a co-author of the RAND report [S-1510] [S-1707]. Before founding ISL, he was a fellow at RAND working on hardware-enabled governance mechanisms for GPU export controls and on international verification of agreements [S-1707]. Tom Gardiner is ISL's staff director and Paul Murley its technical director [S-1707].",
    "referenced_by": [
      {
        "id": "M-0021",
        "title": "Workload classification from telemetry and side channels",
        "url": "https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/workload-classification-from-telemetry/"
      },
      {
        "id": "I-0010",
        "title": "RAND secure inference data center (SIDC) design",
        "url": "https://trustbutveri.fyi/implementations/rand-secure-inference-data-centers/"
      },
      {
        "id": "S-1706",
        "title": "Intelligence Security Laboratories: Building secure infrastructure for transformative AI",
        "url": "https://trustbutveri.fyi/sources/intelligence-security-laboratories-home/"
      },
      {
        "id": "S-1707",
        "title": "Our Team: Intelligence Security Laboratories",
        "url": "https://trustbutveri.fyi/sources/intelligence-security-laboratories-team/"
      }
    ]
  }
}