Sweeping changes swept through US cybersecurity policy as President Trump signed an order on Friday, unraveling much of what the previous two Democratic administrations had built.
His new directive eliminates a section from Biden’s recent executive order that urged federal agencies to accept digital identity documents for those applying for public benefits. The current White House claims this move was needed to close loopholes that could allow undocumented immigrants to access resources they should not receive.
Mark Montgomery, an expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued that making digital identity a focal point distracts from sound cybersecurity practices. He suggested that the attention should be on threats to digital security, not just immigration risks.
Major Overhaul in AI Security and Encryption Efforts
A major element of Trump’s order is the rollback of Biden-era mandates surrounding artificial intelligence. Gone are the requirements to use AI for protecting energy networks, backing federal research into AI security, and ramping up the Pentagon’s implementation of AI for cyber defense.
The White House insists this adjustment allows for a fresh focus on managing security gaps rather than policing information, a response to concerns from Trump’s supporters in the tech industry who warn about the dangers of excessive moderation in AI.
With this shift, rules requiring the immediate adoption of encryption that could withstand quantum computing attacks have been lifted as well. The order also does away with Biden’s demand for federal contractors to certify the safety of their software, with Trump officials labeling such measures as costly and ineffective.
The administration defends these changes, saying they cut unnecessary bureaucracy and move away from checklist culture toward investments that make a real difference in security.
One more significant rollback wiped out Obama-era provisions that authorized sweeping economic sanctions in response to cyber attacks against the United States. Now, sanctions can only target actors from outside the country, not those tied to domestic affairs.
That adjustment, the White House says, should reduce the risk of sanctions being used for political fights within the country. They also claim this clarifies that election-related activities at home will not wind up facing foreign attack sanctions.
Unquestionably, this order marks a new and controversial chapter in how the federal government approaches digital threats and identity in a rapidly changing online world, as highlighted in the official announcement of the executive order to strengthen cyber defenses and as further discussed in current policy and leadership disputes in the AI sector.
