What Cyber Landscape Awaits Government Contractors Following Biden’s Executive Order?
On May 12, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order setting in motion an ambitious plan to rapidly strengthen the cybersecurity posture of the federal government and its contractors, service providers, and software vendors. The cyber EO is sweeping in scope, but provides little in the way of details on what the government contracting industry […]
June 2021 Developments Under the Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity
On May 12, 2021 the Biden Administration issued an “Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity” (EO). Among other things, the EO sets out...
Biden’s Executive Order Strengthens Government’s Cybersecurity Practices
Attorneys at Blank Rome assess the likely impact of the Biden Administration’s recent executive order on improving the nation’s cybersecurity. “The order outlines several initiatives that will be rolled out on an aggressive timetable this year intended to enhance the federal government’s cybersecurity practices, particularly with respect to the software supply chain, and to contractually […]
CISA Collaborating with White House and Others on Zero-Trust Strategy
CISA official Matt Hartman says that his agency is partnering with NIST, NSA, and the White House on a model to guide federal agencies in implementing zero-trust cybersecurity strategies that look for threats within networks, not just guarding the perimeter. The model CISA is developing consists of five pillars – identity, device, network, application workload, […]
Federal Agencies Involved in Drafting New Cyber Guidelines Per EO, Says CISO
Federal CISO Chris DeRusha reports that he is working with active input from the CIOs and CISOs of every federal agency to draft new government cybersecurity guidelines under President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order. The EO requires OMB to work with the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration to develop a federal cloud-security […]
Biden Ends TikTok & WeChat Bans, But Increases Attention on Apps Connected to Adversaries
An executive order from the Biden Administration undoes Trump’s eleventh-hour bans on WeChat and TikTok, but maintains his state of emergency and increases the focus on “certain connected software applications” tied to foreign adversaries. It directs the Commerce Secretary to evaluate transactions involving such applications on a “continuous basis.” Commerce is also directed to report […]
Cyber Executive Order Calls for Updates, Possible Alternatives to FedRAMP
The Biden administration’s recent cybersecurity executive order mentions FedRAMP as a key part of current agency cloud-computing adoption, but gives the GAO 60 days to get to work on updating it, in consultation with OMB and other agency heads. The decade-old FedRAMP currently lists 225 authorized cloud offerings – in a market of about 15,000 […]
White House Doubles Down on Private Sector Outreach for Cybersecurity Push
The White House sent an open letter last week to “corporate executives and business leaders” urging their companies to take “immediate steps” toward better protecting themselves against ransomware attacks.[1] Although the White House cannot generally dictate the actions that private companies take, the Biden administration has emphasized that “[b]usiness leaders have a responsibility to strengthen their […]
Biden Administration Revokes Trump EOs Targeting TikTok, WeChat, and Other Chinese Software Apps; Initiates...
On June 9, 2021, the Biden Administration issued an executive order (EO) entitled “Executive Order on Protecting Americans’ Sensitive Data from Foreign Adversaries.” This...
White House Memo Stresses Need For Vigilance in Defending Against Ransomware Attacks
The White House issued a memorandum to corporate executives and business leaders in which it stresses the need for urgent vigilance in implementing many...