President Biden Approves the Expansive Executive Order to Strengthen Federal Networks Cybersecurity

On May 13, 2021, President Joe Biden approved an extensive Executive Order
that aspires to considerably reinforce cybersecurity defenses for government systems, boost threat information sharing among the government, the private sector, and police authorities, and create a cyber threat response playbook to quicken incident response and alleviation.

The 34-page Executive Order consists of brief time periods for doing useful changes to cybersecurity, with all aspects of the Executive Order needed to be put in place within the following 360 days and the primary components expected within 30 days. The Executive Order was published subsequent to a string of detrimental cyberattacks that affected government divisions and institutions, for instance the attacks on the Microsoft Exchange Servers And Solarwinds Orion Supply Chain. The current DarkSide ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline is an additional reminder of the necessity of improving cybersecurity, not only for the Federal government but at the same time for the private industry which owns and runs most of the nation’s critical infrastructure.

President Biden is making plans to lead by example and is advocating the private market and critical infrastructure organizations to carry out the Federal government’s instruction in enhancing strength to cyberattacks and getting ready for attacks to make sure that issues with operational functions are lessened.

The essential features of the Executive Order on Increasing the Nation’s Cybersecurity are:

  • Taking away obstructions to sharing threat data so it’s straightforward for private sector organizations to report problems and data breaches that may possibly affect Federal sites.
  • Upgrading and employing more robust cybersecurity specifications in the Federal government. This comprises extensive usage of multifactor authentication and data encryption, the use of a zero-trust architecture, and a faster shift to protected cloud services.
  • The development of a standard cyber incident response guidebook. Government units and agencies should know, beforehand, how to take action on threats. The playbook is going to make certain a fast and standard solution to any cybersecurity event.
  • Changes to analysis and remediation abilities. Specific security event records need to be retained by federal divisions and agencies to make sure that cyberattacks may be readily investigated and resolved. Breach investigations are impeded as a result of the deficiency of effective and continuous recording.
  • Bettering software supply chain protection. All software applications purchased by the U.S. government must follow new security specifications. Developers must retain increased supervision of their software programs and make security records open to the public. The government will additionally roll out a pilot “energy star” label process to prove whether the software program was designed safely.
  • A Cybersecurity Safety Review Board will be made that includes government and private industry leads that will meet subsequent any considerable security breach to examine what has transpired. Instructions can then be determined and carried out to make certain identical attacks are avoided down the road.
  • Developments to cyber incident detection functionality. A government-wide endpoint detection and response system is going to be put in place, coupled with solid intra-governmental data sharing.

The Biden Administration mentioned in a statement that this Executive Order considerably leads to modernizing cybersecurity solutions by securing federal systems, strengthening information-sharing involving the U.S. government and the private market on cyber matters, and conditioning the United States’ capacity to respond to mishaps when they take place. It is the first ambitious step the Administration is undertaking to improve national cyber defenses.

Elizabeth Hernandez

Elizabeth Hernandez is the editor of HIPAA News section of HIPAA Coach and an experienced journalist in the healthcare sector. She specializes in healthcare and HIPAA compliance, making her a go-to source for information on healthcare regulations. Her work focuses on the importance of patient privacy and secure information handling. Elizabeth also has a postgraduate degree in journalism. Follow on Twitter: You can follow Elizabeth on twitter at https://twitter.com/ElizabethHzone