Photo of Will Daugherty (US)

On August 27, 2021, the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee released a draft bill that would, among other things, establish a Cyber Incident Review Office (CIR Office) within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and require critical infrastructure owners and operators to report cybersecurity incidents to the CIR Office. The bill would be known as the “Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2021” (the Act) and would build on recent Executive Orders and directives aimed at the U.S. critical infrastructure (including pipelines).

On May 12, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order aimed at improving cybersecurity of the federal government, with assistance from the private sector.  The 18-page Executive Order does not set forth specific requirements, but rather sets deadlines for named agencies to develop requirements, standards, or guidelines on specific cybersecurity areas.  The Executive Order also states that “All Federal Information Systems should meet or exceed the standards and requirements for cybersecurity set forth in and issued pursuant to this order.”  Any company subject to either the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) contract requirements may be seeing substantial changes in the future.