Foreshadowing of Cyber-Security Executive Order
The Trump White House is busy writing a cybersecurity executive order (EO) calling for a host of studies and recommendations. The draft EO calls for three 60-day reviews and one 100-day review of various cyber capabilities.
The EO requests that, within two months, the Secretary of Defense submit to the president a review and initial recommendations for how best to protect national security systems and how to enhance protections of critical systems run by the civilian agencies and private-sector infrastructure companies.
Another section of the draft EO requires recommendations within 100 days for how best to get the private sector to adopt cyber protections.
A third section wants a review of the nation’s cyber adversaries, including capabilities and vulnerabilities, within 60 days.
Each of the review areas already has a significant amount of information available from the previous administration’s Cyber Sprint, Cybersecurity National Action Plan and high-value asset assessment efforts. Additionally, the Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy, issued in July 2016, and the data gathered in its preparation should contribute extensively to the proposed review.
Should the EO become final, it would be the 11th since 2001 which addresses cybersecurity. President Barack Obama alone signed six cyber-related orders:
- October 2011 — Structural Reforms to Improve the Security of Classified Networks and the Responsible Sharing and Safeguarding of Classified Information
- February 2013 — Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity
- October 2014 — Improving the Security of Consumer Financial Transactions
- April 2015 — Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities
- February 2016 — Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity
- December 2016 — Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency With Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber- Enabled Activities
Thus, the data is in place to expedite the fulfillment of the EO. We can look for significant guidance from the federal government in this area in the next 6 months.
This alert was written by Ajay A. Jagtiani in the Intellectual Property & Technology practice group at Miles & Stockbridge.
Any opinions expressed and any legal positions asserted in the article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Miles & Stockbridge P.C. or its other lawyers. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice on any particular matter. It is not intended to and does not create any attorney-client relationship. Because legal advice must vary with individual circumstances, do not act or refrain from acting on the basis of this article without consulting professional legal counsel. If you would like additional information on the subject matter of this article, please feel free to contact any of the lawyers listed above. If you communicate with us, whether through email or other means, your communication does not establish an attorney-client relationship with either Miles & Stockbridge P.C. or any of the firm's lawyers. At Miles & Stockbridge P.C., an attorney-client relationship can be formed only by personal contact with an individual lawyer, not by email, and requires our agreement to act as your legal counsel together with your execution of a written engagement agreement with Miles & Stockbridge P.C.
