Special Report

Disruption has been the animating feature of President Trump’s first hundred days back in office, but mainstay cyber initiatives have largely continued so far, at NIST and the Pentagon, while a question mark hangs over a controversial cyber rule proposed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

As of April 29 -- Day 100 of the second Trump administration -- there has yet to be an executive order or presidential memo substantially overhauling the Biden administration’s approach to cyber, which itself was largely a continuation of policies from the first Trump administration that had built on the work of the Obama administration.

Whether by design or serendipity, Trump has often left the cybersecurity work to the professionals and lent support to the cyber program, by signing the law that created CISA, for instance, in 2018.

However, the impact of ongoing staff reductions could be severe. For instance, key members of the secure-by-design team at CISA announced they were leaving in late April. And the activities of the Elon Musk-led DOGE initiative in probing federal systems has raised cybersecurity concerns on Capitol Hill and among cyber professionals.

Industry groups have presented the new administration with strategies for an extensive update to cyber policy, offering Trump officials what they’ve portrayed as cost-effective cyber approaches that don’t entangle the private sector in red tape.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick came into office pledging to work across the aisle with Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) on a regulatory harmonization effort.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, USTelecom, energy, financial and other groups have submitted cyber plans along with calls to drastically overhaul the incident reporting rule pending at CISA and to renew the expiring cyber info-sharing act of 2015.

Another hallmark of industry lobbying over the first hundred days has been strong support for fully funding cyber initiatives at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Among the plethora of cyber activities at NIST, the agency is planning to start work on developing an artificial intelligence “overlay” for its foundational publication of security and privacy controls, according to Katerina Megas, a NIST official tasked with focusing on the intersection of cyber and AI.

At the Department of Defense, officials have pressed ahead with major cyber efforts including implementation of its landmark CMMC cyber certification program along with a renewed focus on zero-trust architecture under returning DOD official Katie Arrington.

At CISA, the frontline cyber agency is awaiting the confirmation of Sean Plankey as director, as well as still waiting to learn the strategic plans of the White House and new Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. She came into office pledging to field a nimbler, leaner team at CISA.

Inside Cybersecurity is pleased to offer this special report with a curation of articles covering the key developments in cyber policy since Jan. 20: