In his latest bid to strengthen national defenses against cyberattacks, President Biden has sent a memo to federal agencies directing them to formulate voluntary cybersecurity standards for managers of critical U.S. infrastructure.
Biden began his memo by naming both government and the private sector as being jointly responsible for the safety of our critical infrastructure. And he emphasized that the danger cybersecurity threats pose to “the systems that control and operate the critical infrastructure on which we all depend are among the most significant and growing issues confronting our Nation.”
In particular, Biden orders the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop cybersecurity performance goals for critical infrastructure owners and operators. The memo requires preliminary goals for control systems across critical infrastructure sectors to be issued no later than September 22, 2021. Final cross-sector control system goals are to be issued within a year.
At this point, Biden’s “Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative” is a voluntary, collaborative effort between the Federal Government and the critical infrastructure community. Whether that effort remains voluntary will depend on its success over the coming months.