President Joe Biden has announced that he will be appointing a number of national security experts in order to help the US government recover from one of the most vicious hacks its agencies have ever suffered. While cybersecurity was demoted as a policy focus with the Trump administration, it will be of increased importance for the Biden administration.
In December a major hack targeted eight federal agencies, as well as a number of companies, including SolarWinds Corp. Since the attack, U.S. intelligence agencies have publicly attributed the hack to Russian state actors, despite Moscow denying such claims. Since the attack, recent laws have come into place which requires President Biden to open a cyber-focused office reporting to a newly created National Cyber Director. The National Cyber Director will coordinate the US government cyber capabilities, hopefully preventing anymore detrimental cyberattack, such as the one experienced in December.
