Full steam ahead: the federal government’s focus on cybersecurity regulation and enforcement
Full steam ahead: the federal government’s focus on cybersecurity regulation and enforcement
Publish Date: 2026-05-20 15:06:00
Source Domain: www.reuters.com
May 20, 2026 – The White House recently released its National Cyber Strategy and accompanied it with the Executive Order, “Combating Cybercrime, Fraud, and Predatory Schemes Against American Citizens” (Executive Order). The National Cyber Strategy outlines the Administration’s priorities for combating cybercrime and modernizing critical infrastructure. It is the most high-profile cybersecurity action from this Administration, which has been extremely active across federal agencies on both the regulatory and enforcement fronts.
This article provides an overview of the White House’s National Cyber Strategy, a review of other recent cybersecurity activities by federal agencies, and previews the federal government’s likely future cybersecurity activity, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA) rulemaking.
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The White House’s National Cyber Strategy
On March 6, 2026, the White House released its National Cyber Strategy (Strategy). The Strategy broadly signals that there would be greater coordination across the federal government and calls for increased coordination with the privacy sector.
The Strategy focuses on six pillars:
(1) Shaping adversary behavior, including by “creating incentives” for the private sector to identify and disrupt adversary networks;
(2) Promoting common sense regulation and streamlining data and cybersecurity regulations;
(3) Modernizing and securing federal government networks, with a focus on implementing cybersecurity best practices, post-quantum cryptography, zero-trust architecture, and cloud transition;
(4) Securing critical infrastructure, including defense critical infrastructure and adjacent vendors, private companies, networks, and services — such as the energy grid, financial and telecommunication systems, data centers, water utilities, and hospitals — securing information and operational technology supply chains;
(5)…
