The federal government must strengthen the country’s cybersecurity, according to an executive order signed by President Joe Biden on Thursday, January 16.
Accelerating the creation and application of artificial intelligence (AI) that can enhance cybersecurity is one of the actions listed in the executive order.
“Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform cyber defense by rapidly identifying new vulnerabilities, increasing the scale of threat detection techniques and automating cyber defense,” the order said. “The Federal Government must accelerate the development and deployment of AI, explore ways to improve the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure using AI, and accelerate research at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity.”
In addition, the executive order mandates that the federal government implement strong identity authentication and encryption to enhance communication security, adopt proven security practices for things like identity and access management, and ensure that software providers use secure software development practices.
Furthermore, it mandates that the federal government upgrade IT networks and infrastructure, promote the use of digital identification papers to access public benefits programs, and update the standards for identifying individuals who commit hostile cyber activities in order to impose sanctions.
“Adversarial countries and criminals continue to conduct cyber campaigns targeting the United States and Americans, with the People’s Republic of China presenting the most active and persistent cyber threat to the United States Government, private sector and critical infrastructure networks,” the executive order said. “These campaigns disrupt the delivery of critical services across the Nation, cost billions of dollars, and undermine Americans’ security and privacy.”
The December attack of the U.S. Treasury Department is thought to have been carried out by the Chinese hacker collective Silk Typhoon, according to a report released Friday, January 10. It is thought that the gang gained access to unclassified data on desktop and laptop computers by stealing a digital key from a third-party service provider.
Integrity Technology Group, a cybersecurity firm located in Beijing and a government contractor for the People’s Republic of China, was sanctioned by the United States on January 3 for its involvement in harmful botnet activities that targeted key infrastructure both domestically and abroad.
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