“On May 12, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order No. 14028, entitled “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity”, setting out new and enhanced cybersecurity standards for federal government agencies and the commercial software products utilized by them. The Biden administration’s order comes in the wake of increasingly damaging and sophisticated cyber-attacks on American companies and infrastructure, most notably the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, which temporarily shuttered the nation’s largest fuel pipeline, creating gasoline shortages and inducing panic-buying at gas stations throughout the southeastern United States. Recognizing the gravity of the cybersecurity threat, President Biden’s order calls for “bold changes and significant investments in [cybersecurity in] order to defend the vital institutions that underpin the American way of life[,]” and identifies “the prevention, detection, assessment, and remediation of cyber incidents [a]s a top priority and essential to national and economic security[.]” The executive order has two main areas of focus: bolstering and harmonizing cybersecurity standards across the federal government, and calling for the creation of new, stricter cybersecurity requirements for commercial software products utilized by federal government agencies. ”
