President Joe Biden on Thursday is set to issue an executive order aimed at strengthening the federal government’s cybersecurity and offering it more tools to punish digital attackers.
The order in the final days of the Biden administration is meant to reflect lessons US officials learned from the most critical breaches over the last four years, said Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging tech. The initiative’s goals have bipartisan support, she said.
Nonetheless, with President-elect Donald Trump set to return to the White House next week, the future of this and other of Biden’s executive orders is unclear. Trump has vowed to pare back federal regulation and signaled that he intends to repeal another order on artificial intelligence.
Biden’s staff had been racing to complete the order to federal agencies during their dwindling days in office, as the government has grappled with what it says are breaches by Chinese state-backed hackers of the telecommunications industry and Treasury Department.
The new executive order seeks to make it easier for the government to use sanctions to hit back at hackers, including those using ransomware. It further aims to require government vendors to provide proof that they are meeting cybersecurity standards and instructs federal workers to encrypt communications, including emails and videoconferences.
Among other measures, the order also looks to give the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency access to more information about attacks across the US government.
Photo: Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
Topics Cyber
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