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President Biden is urging critical infrastructure organizations to improve their cybersecurity amid a series of hacks and attacks on sectors key to national security and the economy.
A senior Biden administration official said Mr. Biden is directing the Departments of Homeland Security and Commerce to develop performance targets for critical infrastructure and is forming a voluntary effort for the private sector to collaborate with the federal government in the implementation of certain technologies and systems.
“Securing our critical infrastructure requires the effort of the entire nation, and the industry needs to do its part,” he said. “These may be voluntary, but we hope and expect that all responsible critical infrastructure owners and operators will implement them. It cannot be overemphasized that they owe it to the Americans to serve so these critical infrastructure services have more flexibility.”
Biden’s harsh demands on cyber issues have drawn criticism from his political opponents and lackluster scrutiny from cybersecurity officials.
The president has drawn red lines around US critical infrastructure, which is forbidden to Russian attackers, and has repeatedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin to take action against cyberattackers.
Since Mr. Biden’s summit with Mr. Putin in June, cybersecurity experts have observed ongoing hackers and attacks, and Republicans have challenged Mr. Biden’s harsh speech as being misunderstood.
Some Democrats are also starting to grow weary of the Biden administration’s critical infrastructure management. On Tuesday, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island tore up the federal government’s efforts to ensure that critical infrastructure organizations take cybersecurity seriously and lamented the lack of “real standards.”
“We don’t have to regulate everyone in the world, but if you’re a critical infrastructure, we should no longer tolerate this voluntary regime with large companies that know their infrastructure is critical and fail,” said Mr Whitehouse. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Both the Biden administration and Congress are reviewing new rules and laws aimed at improving critical infrastructure assets and cybersecurity practices.
A senior administration official said there is no comprehensive way for the federal government to demand the distribution of security technology and best practices without legislation.
Several senators have recently begun making proposals designed to increase information sharing between the federal government and private sector organizations that manage critical infrastructure.
Last week, a bipartisan group of 15 senators introduced the 2021 Cyber Incident Notification Act, which will force critical infrastructure assets, state contractors, and federal agencies to disclose cyber breaches.
A separate group of four bipartisan senators announced last week that they are proposing to mandate the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) to identify and respond to threats to industrial control systems.
The legislation will also enable CISA to share information about threats with the private sector and inform legislators about the agency’s ability to respond to cyber threats.
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