US President Joe Biden announced new measures on Tuesday to protect and improve the resilience of critical US infrastructure in sectors such as energy and financial services from “current and future” threats, including Chinese cyber threats.
Biden signed the National Security Memorandum (NSM), which replaces existing infrastructure policy legislation in place since 2013, when it was issued by former President Barack Obama (2009-2017).
“Good investments require taking steps to manage risk, and in the case of our infrastructure, that means building resilience to all hazards from the start and during the design phase,” the White House said in a statement.
Regarding software piracy, the US Department of Justice announced on January 31 an operation that involved the dismantling of hundreds of US-based routers “hijacked by hackers working for the Chinese government.”
“Chinese hackers are targeting critical U.S. civilian infrastructure, positioning themselves to cause real harm to U.S. citizens and communities in the event of conflict,” FBI Director Christopher Wray warned at the time.
The Biden administration is using the president’s Invest in America program to modernize decades-old policies that featured many technological advances such as artificial intelligence (AI).
As part of the policy, Biden has committed $50 billion specifically to strengthen infrastructure across 4,000 projects.
Among the measures, the new memorandum proposes that the Department of Homeland Security regularly submit national risk management plans outlining the government’s efforts to protect critical infrastructure.
It also directs the U.S. intelligence community to collect, produce, and share critical infrastructure information with federal departments and agencies, state and local partners, and the owners and operators of that infrastructure.
In this regard, the NSM, in accordance with the White House statement, recognizes that the owners and operators of these private sector infrastructures are often “the first line of defense against adversaries targeting the nation’s most critical assets and systems” and therefore increases your minimum requirements for security and fault tolerance.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Tifany Hawkins, a professional journalist with years of experience in news reporting. I currently work for a prominent news website and write articles for 24NewsReporters as an author. My primary focus is on economy-related stories, though I am also experienced in several other areas of journalism.