Cybersecurity

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On April 18, 2023, the European Commission published its proposal for an EU Cyber Solidarity Act (“CSA”).  It aims to strengthen incident detection, situational awareness, and response capabilities, and to ensure that entities providing services critical for day-to-day life can access expert support to manage their cyber risk and respond to incidents.  Specifically, the CSA aims to promote information sharing about cyber incidents and vulnerabilities, to help improve the cyber resilience of critical entities, and to create an EU-wide resource for incident management.

The CSA adds another layer to the increasingly crowded landscape of EU cybersecurity laws.  The proposed law would interact with the revised Network and Information Security Directive (“NIS2”) and certifications issued under the Cybersecurity Act. Private companies in specific sectors will also have to consider potential overlap with the forthcoming Cyber Resilience Act and the financial services-focused Digital Operation Resilience Act.

Below, we set out three striking features of the CSA that are likely to be of particular relevance to private companies.…

Continue Reading Three Interesting Features of the Proposed EU Cyber Solidarity Act

Last week, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) released guidance on Security-by-Design and Security-by-Default principles for technology manufacturers that was jointly developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency, as well as cybersecurity authorities in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, and New Zealand.  While similar principles have been published in the past, such as those released by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, this guidance builds on the White House’s recent roll-out of the U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy and is in line with efforts to encourage a consistent, international approach to software security that emphasizes the responsibilities of software manufacturers across various jurisdictions.  While the guidance primarily focuses on recommendations for technology manufacturers, it also includes recommendations for enterprise customers to “hold their supplying technology manufacturers accountable for the security outcomes of their products.”  CISA and the authoring agencies are seeking feedback on the guidance, and indicated plans to hold future listening sessions to collect feedback. …

Continue Reading CISA Publishes International Guidance on Implementing Security-by-Design and Security-by-Default Principles for Software Manufacturers and Customers

On March 16, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) approved a new Reliability Standard “adding new requirements focused on supply chain risk management for low impact bulk electric system (“BES”) Cyber Systems.” …

Continue Reading FERC Approves New Cybersecurity Requirements for Low Impact Bulk Electric Systems

On March 21, 2023, the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) announced the issuance of updated Cybersecurity Performance Goals (“CPGs”).  The CPGs, which were originally released in October 2022, are intended to establish a set of fundamental cybersecurity practices to be voluntarily implemented by critical infrastructure owners and operators across all critical infrastructure sectors.  The CPGs apply to both information technology (“IT”) and operational technology (“OT”) and are designed to reduce risk related to known, high-impact cyber threats and adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures (“TTPs”).…

Continue Reading CISA Releases Revised Cybersecurity Performance Goals for Critical Infrastructure

On March 8, 2023, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), through the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response and the Health Sector Coordinating Counsel Joint Cybersecurity Working Group, released an updated version of its Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guide (the “Guide”) “to help the public and private health care sectors prevent cybersecurity incidents.”  Specifically, the Guide aims to help healthcare organizations leverage the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to “determine their cybersecurity goals, assess their current cybersecurity practices, or lack thereof, and help identify gaps for remediation.”  …

Continue Reading HHS Releases Guidance to Help Healthcare Organizations Align with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework

On March 3, 2023, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published a memorandum requiring states to evaluate the cybersecurity of operational technology used by public water systems (“PWSs”) “when conducting PWS sanitary surveys or through other state programs.”  EPA’s memorandum “interprets the regulatory requirements relating to the conduct of sanitary surveys to require that…

The United States National Cybersecurity Strategy, released on March 2, 2023, is poised to place significant responsibility for cybersecurity on technology companies, federal contractors, and critical infrastructure owners and operators.  The Strategy articulates a series of objectives and recommended executive and legislative actions that, if implemented, would increase the cybersecurity responsibilities and requirements of these types of entities.  The overall goal of the Strategy is to create a “defensible, resilient digital ecosystem” where the costs of an attack are more than the cost of defending those systems and where “neither incidents nor errors cascade into catastrophic, systemic consequences.”  The Strategy outlines two fundamental shifts to how the federal government will attempt to allocate roles, responsibilities, and resources in cyberspace. …

Continue Reading White House Releases National Cybersecurity Strategy

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued a final rule (Order No. 887) directing the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) to develop new or modified Reliability Standards that require internal network security monitoring (“INSM”) within Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) networked environments.  This Order may be of interest to entities that develop, implement, or maintain hardware or software for operational technologies associated with bulk electric systems (“BES”).…

Continue Reading FERC Orders Development of New Internal Network Security Monitoring Standards

On January 19, 2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) published a Concept Paper setting out “Potential Significant Updates to the Cybersecurity Framework.”  Originally released in 2014, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (“CSF” or “Framework”) is a framework designed to assist organizations with developing, aligning, and prioritizing “cybersecurity activities with [] business/mission requirements, risk tolerances, and resources.”  Globally, organizations, industries, and government agencies have increasingly relied upon the Framework to establish cybersecurity programs and measure their maturity.  The NIST CSF was previously updated in 2018, and NIST now seeks public comment on the latest changes outlined in the Concept Paper.…

Continue Reading NIST Requests Comments on Potential Significant Updates to the Cybersecurity Framework

This quarterly update summarizes key legislative and regulatory developments in the fourth quarter of 2022 related to Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), the Internet of Things (“IoT”), connected and autonomous vehicles (“CAVs”), and data privacy and cybersecurity.…

Continue Reading U.S. AI, IoT, CAV, and Privacy Legislative Update – Fourth Quarter 2022