Strengthening U.S. Cyber Security – New Executive Order

In response to recommendations contained in the Solarium Commission report and the Solar Winds cybersecurity incident, President Biden issued an Executive Order on May 12, 2021 (EO), outlining new requirements for information technology (IT) providers that do business with the federal government. The purpose of the requirements is to protect federal networks from malicious cyber-attacks and to improve information-sharing between the U.S. government and the private sector on cyber issues, thereby strengthening the United States' ability to respond to incidents when they occur. The EO is available here.

This much-anticipated and lengthy EO is intended to make bold changes to the way the federal government approaches cybersecurity, identifying a new policy of prevention, detection, assessment, and remediation of cyber incidents as a top priority which is essential to national and economic security. The EO is intended to quickly identify and respond to threats from both