Biden signs Memo on improving cybersecurity of US critical infrastructure

WASHINGTON, July 28 (KUNA) -- US President Joe Biden signed Wednesday a National Security Memorandum (NSM) on "Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems," which addresses cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and implements "long overdue efforts" to meet the threats being faced.
"The cybersecurity threats posed 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," Biden wrote in the NSM issued by the White House.
He added, "The degradation, destruction, or malfunction of systems that control this infrastructure could cause significant harm to the national and economic security of the United States." He affirmed, "It is the policy of my Administration to safeguard the critical infrastructure of the Nation, with a particular focus on the cybersecurity and resilience of systems supporting National Critical Functions." He announced that he has established "an Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative (Initiative), a voluntary, collaborative effort between the Federal Government and the critical infrastructure community to significantly improve the cybersecurity of these critical systems." The primary objective of this Initiative is "to defend the United States' critical infrastructure by encouraging and facilitating deployment of technologies and systems that provide threat visibility, indications, detection, and warnings, and that facilitate response capabilities for cybersecurity in essential control system and operational technology networks." The goal of the Initiative is "to greatly expand deployment of these technologies across priority critical infrastructure." He noted that the Initiative "creates a path for Government and industry to collaborate to take immediate action, within their respective spheres of control, to address these serious threats." "We cannot address threats we cannot see; therefore, deploying systems and technologies that can monitor control systems to detect malicious activity and facilitate response actions to cyber threats is central to ensuring the safe operations of these critical systems," Biden stressed.
The NDM directs the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in collaboration with other agencies "to develop cybersecurity performance goals for critical infrastructure." Separately, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a joint statement that this NSM "takes a key step toward improving the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure by directing the Departments of Homeland Security and Commerce to work together, alongside other agencies, in developing cybersecurity performance goals that set a clear, easy-to-understand security baseline." "The safety and security of the American people rely on the resilience of the companies that provide essential services such as power, water, and transportation," they stressed. "The establishment of cybersecurity performance goals marks important progress toward this goal." "We are committed to working closely with our partners in the private sector to promote proactive cybersecurity practices that will protect our national and economic security," they affirmed. (end) si.gta