In the tech industry, there are certain truisms that set it apart from other sectors of the economy—perhaps none more striking than its embrace of regulations as a framework.
Rohit Ghai, CEO of cybersecurity company RSA, told IT Brew at last month’s RSAC conference that he has seen little indication that federal regulators are substantially pulling back on Biden administration efforts to put more guardrails in place. Ghai said he and his tech industry colleagues are welcoming this approach, at least so far.
“The current tone is that, hey, we want deregulation that is business friendly,” Ghai said. “Having said that, on the cyber side of the regulation, I have seen no signs of taking the foot off the gas. Because, in general, all the regulation there is deemed as legit, and actually advancing the business agenda as opposed to impeding it.”
Cutting it close. Though the Trump administration is pursuing many deregulatory policies, the administration hasn’t taken direct action to cut regulations on cybersecurity. But they have cut staff at CISA—how many positions, they won’t say—and on May 2, the day after RSAC ended, the administration announced plans to cut $491 million, or 17%, from CISA’s $3 billion budget.
In addition, the long term future of initiatives like the CVE program is in doubt. For the latter, as Mitre media spokesperson Lisa Fasold told IT Brew in April, both the private sector and the federal government “realize its value to the cyber community, and it definitely has enough support from the cyber community overall to keep going.”
Top insights for IT pros
From cybersecurity and big data to cloud computing, IT Brew covers the latest trends shaping business tech in our 4x weekly newsletter, virtual events with industry experts, and digital guides.
That’s a position that could hold for more aspects of CISA and indeed the federal government’s tech policy as a whole. Ghai feels “very positive about the public–private sector partnership” because of the government's attendance at RSAC, he said, though there are some challenges presented by the current federal instability.
“Yes, there are efficiency drives, and we didn’t have as many people from the intelligence community or DOD attend, but the people that were here were very keen to collaborate with the private sector,” Ghai said.
Take a beat. But those cuts did have some at RSAC a little worried. Debbie Gordon, founder and CEO of attack simulator Cloud Range, said that while the instability has opened the door for private sector advantage to cover for the public sector’s slack, that can’t make up for the massive amount of cash and research from the federal government.
“My biggest fear is that there are just no initiatives, and we’re left completely vulnerable,” Gordon said. “That stuff doesn’t happen overnight, private partnerships.”