The Biden administration is racing to put out an executive order meant to shore up US cybersecurity in its dwindling days in office, according to four people familiar with the matter.
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The executive order, which has cleared some internal hurdles and is close to being published, incorporates lessons from a series of major breaches during the Biden administration, including the most recent US Treasury Department hack attributed to China, according people familiar with the matter who did not want to be named to discuss information that has not yet been made public.
Among the measures, it directs the government to implement “strong identity authentication and encryption” across communications, according to an undated draft of the order seen by Bloomberg News.
In the December Treasury hack, intruders accessed unclassified documents stored locally on laptops and desktop computers. Encrypting information sent by email and worked on in the cloud could help safeguard it from hackers who successfully access systems but then cannot open specific documents.
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China denies accusations of state-sponsored hacking from US, UK and New Zealand
China denies accusations of state-sponsored hacking from US, UK and New Zealand
The US National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment.
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