Biden Signs Cybersecurity Executive Order After Colonial Pipeline Hack

President Joe Biden signed an executive order that he says will improve the nation’s cybersecurity, following a hack of the computer systems linked to the Colonial Pipeline. Biden’s broad executive order, which the administration has been working on for months, seeks to better equip federal agencies with cybersecurity tools and also encourages improvements in cybersecurity standards across the private sector. The White House said in a fact sheet that the latest incident with the Colonial Pipeline is “a reminder that federal action alone is not enough” and that the private sector, which makes its own decisions regarding cybersecurity investments, owns and operates much of the United States’ critical infrastructure. “We encourage private sector companies to follow the Federal government’s lead and take ambitious measures to augment and align cybersecurity investments with the goal of minimizing future incidents,” the White House said, while noting other past incidents such as with SolarWinds and Microsoft …