Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

In November 2024, the Department of Commerce’s Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute established a new taskforce to research and test AI models in areas critical to national security and public safety, while ODNI released guidance on the acquisition and use of foundation AI models, both part of the national security community’s response to the directives of the recent White House AI Memo and Executive Order 14110.

On November 6, 2024, the Transportation Security Administration published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would subject critical surface transportation owners and operators to cyber risk management and reporting requirements.

On October 24, 2024, the White House released a memorandum implementing Executive Order 14110 on national security and responsible AI.

On October 21, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice National Security Division issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking implementing Executive Order 14117 that will restrict certain transactions with high-risk countries.

On March 27, 2024, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (“CISA”) released an unpublished version of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”), as required by the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (“CIRCIA”). The NPRM will be officially published on April 4, 2024, and comments are due by June 3, 2024. Pursuant to the proposed rules, “covered entities” would be required to report (1) “qualifying cyber incidents,” (2) ransom payments made in response to a ransomware attack, and (3) any substantially new or different information discovered related to a previously submitted report to CISA. Covered entities are required to notify CISA within 72 hours in the event of a qualifying cyber incident and within 24 hours, in the event that payment is made in response to a ransomware attack.

On November 27, 2023, the UK government announced the first global guidelines to ensure the secure development of AI technology (the “Guidelines”), which were developed by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (“NCSC”) and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”), in cooperation with industry experts and other international agencies and ministries. The guidelines have been endorsed by a further 15 countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Nigeria, and certain EU countries (full list here).

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) recently released a draft of the agency’s Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (“CPGs”) for critical infrastructure in the United States. The CPGs provide a common set of fundamental cybersecurity practices to guide critical infrastructure entities in measuring and improving their cybersecurity maturity.  

On September 12, 2022, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) released a Request for Information (“RFI”) seeking public input regarding the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (“CIRCIA”). The public comment period will close on November 14th, 2022. The RFI provides a “non-exhaustive” list of topics on which CISA seeks public input, including:

On June 21, 2022, President Biden signed into law, the State and Local Government Cybersecurity Act of 2021 (S. 2520) (the “Cybersecurity Act”) and the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act (S. 1097) (the “Cyber Workforce Program Act”), two bipartisan bills aimed at enhancing the cybersecurity postures of the federal, state and local governments.

On January 4, 2022,  the Federal Trade Commission published a blog post reminding companies that “the duty to take reasonable steps to mitigate known software vulnerabilities implicates laws including, among others, the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Gramm Leach Bliley Act,” in response to Log4Shell’s public disclosure of the Log4j vulnerability. The blog post also calls for companies to take immediate steps to reduce the likelihood of harm to consumers that could result from the exposure of consumer data as a result of Log4j or similar known vulnerabilities.

On December 2, 2021, the Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”) announced that it issued two security directives requiring higher-risk freight railroads, passenger rail and rail transit to implement measures to strengthen cybersecurity within the sector. In its press release, the TSA stated that it determined these requirements needed to be issued immediately to protect the transportation sector. The TSA also stated that it sought input from industry stakeholders and federal partners, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”), in developing its approach.