A national security memorandum places new cybersecurity requirements for reporting and preventing security incidents involving sensitive national security systems.

United States President Joe Biden issued a 17-page National Security Memorandum (NSM) yesterday containing new cybersecurity requirements for national security systems (NSS). The memo’s purpose is to ensure that these more sensitive systems employ the same or more stringent cybersecurity measures spelled out for federal civilian systems in Biden’s comprehensive cybersecurity executive order issued in May 2021.

National security systems are information systems, including telecommunication systems, that involve intelligence or cryptologic activities related to national security, command and control of military forces, weapons systems, other activity critical to the direct fulfillment of military or intelligence missions, and classified information related to national defense or foreign policy. This latest effort to boost cybersecurity follows the order issued last May and an NSM for critical infrastructure owners, a directive to bolster pipeline cybersecurity, and several other actions by the administration to prioritize cybersecurity following a year of growing threats and attacks.

This article appeared in CSO Online. To read the rest of the article please visit here.