President Biden issued an executive order on Thursday mandating new security standards and greater disclosure for companies selling software to the government, a response to years of digital disruptions, spying, and ransomware attacks from foreign adversaries. "The goal is to make it costlier and harder for China, Russia, Iran, and ransomware criminals to hack, and to also signal that America means business when it comes to protecting our businesses and our citizens," Anne Neuberger, a deputy national security adviser, told reporters, per NPR. The incoming administration of President-elect Trump, who advocates deregulation, doesn't have to keep the new rules, the New York Times points out.
Biden's cybersecurity team has not discussed the regulations with Trump's but would be happy to, Neuberger said, per CNBC, once it's been named. The rules require companies to prove that software they sell to the US meets basic cybersecurity requirements and publish evidence of it. They also make penalizing foreign governments that target the US with cyberattacks easier, per the AP. Federal agencies also are instructed to improve security against the more powerful quantum computers. Among the concerns is a foreign rival building a computer capable of breaking US codes.
The 50-page order represents a change in approach by the Biden administration, which has tried pushing companies to voluntarily invest more in cybersecurity, per the Times. "I think we've seen, over the last four years, we actually need proof," Neuberger said. If the industry has to make the steps it's taken public, administration officials figure, it will be clear to all where the hole was the next time there's an embarrassing breach. (More cybersecurity stories.)
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