washington
CNN
—
President Joe Biden on Thursday made the final push to strengthen U.S. cyber defenses after a series of cyberattacks on federal networks that U.S. officials say were the work of Chinese and Russian operatives. He plans to sign an executive order that will be a blow to the nation.
The directive marks a move by U.S. officials to investigate major hacking operations under the Biden administration, from Russia’s alleged sabotage of satellite providers before the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to China’s alleged intrusions into U.S. communications networks. This is the result of several months of study. This is to spy on the top officials of the Republican and Democratic parties.
White House official Anne Neuberger said the goal is to “put the new administration and the country on a path to continued success” and “make hacking by China, Russia, Iran, and ransomware criminals more costly.” “And make it difficult.” reporters on Wednesday.
The order would require agencies to use stronger encryption to protect federal employees’ calls and text messages from interception, according to a draft review reviewed by CNN. This is reminiscent of Chinese communications hacks that preyed on targets using insecure messaging. The directive also authorizes the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber agency to collect sensitive data from other agencies’ networks to investigate sophisticated hacking activities and cyber crimes that disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure. Facilitates Treasury sanctions against agents and spies.
The executive order also calls for new programs to leverage artificial intelligence to reduce billions of dollars worth of identity fraud affecting Americans and protect the U.S. energy sector from hacking.
The order reflects Biden administration officials’ long-standing frustration with lax security practices at software companies selling to the U.S. government. For example, a U.S. government-backed investigation into Microsoft’s security practices found that an “avoidable A chain of errors was discovered. Microsoft announced changes to its security policy. )
In his first months in office, Biden issued new cybersecurity orders requiring contractors to meet minimum security standards when doing business with the government. But Thursday’s directive finally requires those contractors to provide the government and the public with data showing that their software meets secure development requirements. Federal agencies will comply with the order and post receipts online for the public to view.
“We weren’t verifying that the products we were using actually communicated that they met those safety standards,” Neuberger said.
Cybersecurity has traditionally been a bipartisan issue. It is not yet clear how much of the executive order the new Trump team, which takes office next week, will maintain or repeal. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Mike Walz, has called for more offensive cyber operations, but the incoming administration has not developed a cyber defense strategy.
