The Private Sector Should Heed White House Warning On Cyber Resilience Because Compliance Is Coming

The increased concern about ransomware incidents from both quantitative and severity standpoints, spurred the White House to urge corporate business leaders to improve their defenses and resilience posture against ransomware attacks. In a June 2, 2021 open letter to Corporate Executives and Business Leaders (the Letter), Anne Neuberger, the White House Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emergency Technology, appealed for business leaders to act following on the heels of the President's directives to federal agencies and contractors.

The Letter asks business executives to view ransomware not a data theft problem, but rather as a threat to their core business - with the ability to halt operations and cut off the company's revenue stream. Because this is the true threat from ransomware, business leaders must review their security postures, and rehearse their business continuity plans to test not only their ability to continue operations but also to restore