President Trump abruptly delayed the signing of an executive order scheduled for Tuesday afternoon that would have directed agency heads to tighten their cybersecurity infrastructure and better prepare for situations in which their data may be compromised.
A White House official had told reporters earlier Tuesday that Trump planned to sign an order meant to hold each federal agency accountable for managing their own cyber risk, using a framework provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
“That cybersecurity framework has become a de facto industry standard across numerous sectors of the economy,” the official had said.
Under the order, the Office of Management and Budget would be tasked with examining security infrastructure across the executive branch and developing a plan to modernize existing federal systems. Furthermore, the departments of commerce, defense and homeland security, among other agencies, would be required to “take a number of initial steps to advance the cyber security of our nation’s critical infrastructure [and] consider ways of deterring adversaries,” the official had said.
In a policy paper released during his campaign, Trump promised to order an “immediate review of all U.S. cyber defenses and vulnerabilities” and to task a coalition of military, law enforcement and private-sector leaders with determining how to safeguard various entities “with the best defense technologies tailored to likely threats.”
Trump met with a group of cybersecurity experts shortly before he was supposed to sign the executive order Tuesday afternoon. Minutes after reporters were escorted out of the meeting, a separate administration official announced that the signing at been postponed.
