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 cyber defenses to protect the American public and . . . economy." ² To that end, the letter referenced the five "best practices" set forth in the recently issued Executive Order on Cybersecurity, including (1) multifactor authentication; (2) endpoint detection; (3) endpoint response; (4) encryption; and (5) a skilled and empowered security team. The letter also outlined five basic but impactful security practices that the White House recommended companies implement: