Biden boosts cybersecurity at federal agencies

The White House announced on Wednesday new measures to boost cybersecurity within federal agencies following increased cyberattacks on private and public U.S. infrastructure.

The ‘Zero trust’ approach: According to a memo released by Shalanda Young, the acting director for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), agencies will be transitioning to a “zero trust” approach that assumes no actor, system or network operating outside the security perimeter is to be trusted.

“Instead, we must verify anything and everything attempting to establish access,” the memo reads, calling it a “dramatic paradigm shift in philosophy of how we secure our infrastructure, networks, and data.”

“This zero trust strategy is about ensuring the federal government leads by example, and it marks another key milestone in our efforts to repel attacks from those who would do the United States harm,” Young said in a statement.

The strategy is in line with President Biden’s executive order on improving the nation’s cybersecurity, which he signed in May after a major cyberattack crippled Colonial Pipelines, which transports nearly half of the fuel up the East Coast. A Russian group known as DarkSide secured a $4.4 million ransom after shutting the company’s operating system down, but the Department of Justice later recouped most of the money.