Biden signed an executive order to avert new cybersecurity disasters

After the attacks on Microsoft Exchange, SolarWinds and Colonial Pipeline, America is running for cover: the goals are to reduce the attack surface, use multifactor authentication and standardize the defensive response

(photo: Doug Mills-Pool / Getty Images) US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to improve national cybersecurity. Biden's move comes in response to recent cyber attacks that have caught the United States unprepared: the one that paralyzed the largest gas pipeline on the East Coast, the vulnerabilities of Microsoft Exchange servers, which exposed more than 60,000 organizations in the United States alone and the SolarWinds supply chain hack, which compromised 9 federal agencies, are just some of the major cyber attacks the US has been dealing with recently. Added to these are the numerous ransomware attacks that hit the computer systems of city governments, paralyzing them for days, as happened in 2019 in Baltimore or a few weeks ago in Tulsa.

The executive order signed by Biden outlines a series of initiatives that will aim to increase the defensive response and to establish rules that all territorial administrations and federal agencies will have to respect. Among these are the reduction of barriers in the sharing of information between the government and the private sector, the obligation to implement multifactor authentication in the federal government, the establishment of a Cybersecurity Safety Review Board modeled on the already existing National Transportation Safety. Board, and the creation of a playbook of standard defensive actions to respond to cyber incidents.

The White House therefore runs for cover, after reading for months the reports on the cyber attacks suffered which have exposed a very serious vulnerability in the cybersecurity sector. Although, excluding the SolarWinds attack, the federal government remains well protected from cyberattacks, it is the widespread vulnerability in the territory that worries the Biden administration. Water plants, gas pipelines and even entire cities have proved to be easy targets for cybercriminals and for the Biden administration, so the time has come to crack down on the defensive response.


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Cybersecurity Joe Biden United States globalData.fldTopic = " Cybersecurity, Joe Biden, United States "

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