As defense contractors continue to push towards their end-of-year implementation deadline for NIST SP 800-171 under DFARS 252.204-7012, the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) has given the contracting community some extra time to respond to a draft publication that outlines how they and their customers alike can assess compliance with the security standard. Initially published on November 28, NIST SP 800-171A, Assessing Security Requirements for Controlled Unclassified Information, is now open for comment until January 15, 2018 – several weeks longer than the initial deadline of December 27.