Tech industry experts digest cybersecurity executive order

IT pros assess a last-minute cybersecurity executive order with new directives on a broad swath of topics, from cybercriminal sanctions to AI and identity management.

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• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer
• Arielle Waldman, News Writer

An 11th hour cybersecurity executive order from the Biden administration potentially lays the groundwork for policy under the incoming Trump administration, but it's unclear whether it's too little, too late.

The new cybersecurity executive order, issued Thursday, covered a wide range of concerns, including updates to previous White House directives on software supply chain security and cybercrime sanctions. The new order addressed minutiae such as protecting IP address numbers and user identities in federal digital systems, but also issued sweeping calls for pilot programs in areas such as AI cyberdefense for critical infrastructure systems.

Among cybersecurity experts, the initial reaction to the new order was confusion and trepidation ...