A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the federal government needs to move with greater urgency to improve the nation’s cybersecurity as the country faces “grave and rapidly evolving threats”.
The report, which is an update on previous work, sets out the critical actions needed to address four major challenges that GAO identified back in 2018:
Establishing a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy and performing effective oversight. The prior administration’s September 2018 national cybersecurity strategy and the June 2019 implementation plan detail the executive branch’s approach to managing the nation’s cybersecurity. In September 2020 GAO reported that the national strategy and implementation plan addressed some, but not all, of the desirable characteristics of national strategies, such as goals and resources needed. The new administration needs to either update the existing strategy and plan or develop a new comprehensive strategy that addresses those characteristics.
GAO also highlighted the urgent need to clearly define a central role for leading the implementation of the national strategy. Accordingly, it recommended that Congress…
