Congressional Commission Reports Significant Progress in Strengthening US Cybersecurity

The United States has made significant progress in strengthening its cybersecurity in the wake of multiple high-profile cyberattacks, a congressional commission said.

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission said nearly 75 percent of the 82 recommendations it made in a March 2020 report have either been implemented or on track to be implemented, CyberScoop reported Thursday.

CSC said the boost in cyber resilience was partly driven by the recent wave of major cyber incidents, including the Russia-linked SolarWinds hack, which compromised the networks of at least nine federal government agencies and hundreds of American companies.

A more recent hack was the ransomware attack against Kaseya, an information software management company. The attack is suspected to have affected about 200 businesses, although Kaseya said only a “small number of on-premise customers” was impacted.

While CSC struggled to garner support for some of its recommendations, it succeeded in getting lawmakers to create a national cyber director role within the White House.

The Senate confirmed National Security Agency veteran Chris Inglis to the position in June, putting him in charge of the government’s top-level response to cybersecurity threats and the execution of critical cyber policies.

Inglis is also responsible for advising the president on the federal government’s strategy for critical infrastructure organizations, incident response, diplomatic initiatives related to cybersecurity and efforts to deter adversaries.

CSC noted, however, that its legislative recommendations related to national data security and privacy protection will not likely move forward in the near future.

Another priority for CSC is authorizing the Department of Homeland Security to designate critical infrastructure areas.

DHS defines critical infrastructure sectors are those whose assets, systems and networks are essential for security, national economic security or national public health.