As might be expected, the first year of the Trump Administration saw a lot of activity on the cybersecurity front. In May, the Administration issued its “Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure.” As we discussed in an analysis we issued shortly thereafter, the Order brought more accountability to agencies for monitoring their own cybersecurity, and required them all to implement the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. In September, the Department of Homeland Security banned the use of products, solutions or services offered by Kaspersky Labs. And of course, cybersecurity continues to play an important role in ongoing investigations and political activities relating to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

Putting it Into Practice: Companies should be keeping track of the various developing NIST cybersecurity standards. As the federal government and others continue to adopt them more widely, they are rapidly becoming commercial standards for cybersecurity.