President Biden today signed a new national security memorandum (NSM) that aims to better protect U.S. critical infrastructure sectors by enlisting U.S. intelligence agencies to ramp up their sharing of threat data across multiple levels of government and with private-sector critical infrastructure providers.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board, which will consider ways to promote the safe and secure use of AI technology in U.S. critical infrastructure.

The Department of Energy’s (DoE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) has announced $15 million in funding to establish six university-based electric power cybersecurity centers that will foster collaboration across the energy sector to address gaps in energy security research and provide cybersecurity education programs. 

Following the discovery of a Chinese-based hacking group compromising U.S. critical infrastructure, the White House – in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – announced plans this week to form a Water Sector Cybersecurity Task Force.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and FBI published a joint fact sheet on Feb. 21 outlining the top cybersecurity actions water and wastewater systems sector (WWS) entities can take to improve their cyber resiliency.

Feds Warn of Chinese Hack Into US Critical Infrastructure
Federal agencies called on all organizations today to urgently implement a series of cybersecurity actions after discovering that a Chinese-based hacking group has compromised the IT environments of multiple U.S. critical infrastructure organizations – with the end goal of a future cyberattack.

In joint guidance released on Jan. 17, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – alongside the FBI – is warning critical infrastructure and state, local, tribal, and territorial partners of cybersecurity threats posed by Chinese-manufactured unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), more commonly known as drones.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its third report in a series of four that lay out the main cybersecurity areas the Federal government needs to urgently address.

In a recent report, the National Governors Association (NGA) detailed what practices governors can follow to establish effective cybersecurity governance bodies that support critical infrastructure cybersecurity, with a specific focus on the energy sector.

The Biden administration is proposing that the Federal government take a giant leap into the national broadband service market – traditionally the province of the private sector – in order to close persistent service availability and affordability gaps across the United States.