U.S. President Biden has only been president for 2 days, yet it seems he is already doing more for U.S. cyber security than his predecessor. Some of the new changes include:
- $9 billion earmarked to modernize the federal IT infrastructure to prevent cyber attacks
- Opening a cyber-centric office under a recent law
- Hiring a world-class cyber security team
- Tasking U.S. Intelligence agencies to report on the suspected Russian hacking operation that breached multiple U.S. federal agencies that exposed glaring weaknesses in U.S. cyber-defenses
In addressing the SolarWinds breach directly, President Biden’s proposal also includes $200 million for additional hires to support the federal Chief Information Security Officer and U.S. Digital Service; $300 million to modernize the General Services Administration’s IT systems; and $690 million for CISA to spend on federal-civilian network security and pilot secure cloud-computing services.
In case you missed it, the SolarWinds breach was discovered in December of 2020. It was found that Russian-based threat actors were able to launch a sophisticated supply chain attack by hiding malicious code in the body of legitimate software updates provided to SolarWinds clients, including many U.S. Government agencies.
In addition to the spending, Biden is also hiring cyber security experts like Anne Neuberger as Deputy National Security Adviser for cyber and emerging technology, Michael Sulmeyer as senior director for cyber, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall as Homeland security adviser, Russ Travers as deputy homeland security adviser and Caitlin Durkovich as senior director for resilience and response at the NSC.
This is a departure from former President Trump’s tenure in office, as Trump discontinued the Cybersecurity Coordinator position at the White House, shrunk the State Department’s cyber diplomacy wing, and fired federal cybersecurity leader Chris Krebs in the aftermath of his Nov. 3 election defeat.
This is all very hopeful for the U.S. Government to get its national cyber security strategy back in order. As business owners, it would be wise to follow President Biden’s lead by taking the cyber security of their organizations seriously. You don’t need to spend as much as the U.S. Federal government but taking the time to find the right cyber security experts to protect your business can do a lot. And you don’t have to do it all on your own. Contact the experts at Uzado to help prepare your cyber security strategy.
