The Biden administration has rolled out a new National Cybersecurity Strategy (2nd March) that puts more pressure on the US tech industry to take more responsibility for protecting their systems from hackers.

The new strategy aims to take on the systemic challenge of too much responsibility for cybersecurity falling on individual users and small organisations.

The strategy has had a mixed reception, however, some experts believe that “overregulation” could have a “counterproductive” effect on a company’s cybersecurity.

“Even amid surging cybercrime, shifting the cybersecurity burden to software developers and tech solution providers may seem an unduly harsh move, however, economically speaking it makes perfect sense,” Dr. Ilia Kolochenko, founder of ImmuniWeb, and a member of Europol Data Protection Experts Network, told Verdict

“That being said, overregulation or bureaucracy will certainly be harmful and rather produce a counterproductive effect.

“Unnecessarily burdensome or, contrariwise, formalistic and lenient security requirements will definitely bring more harm than good.”

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Kolochenko believes the “technical scope” and “timing of implementation” for the requirements of Biden’s proposal is paramount to companies’ success or failure in taking increased responsibility. 

The new National Cybersecurity Strategy also calls for US law enforcement to put more emphasis on bringing down gangs of digital thieves and ransomware bandits. 

Edgard Capdevielle, CEO at cybersecurity company Nozomi Networks, believes that the work to implement the proposed strategies will “be expensive in time”. 

“While the National Cybersecurity Strategy represents a positive shift in motivation, the actual work to implement these strategies will be expensive in time, human resources, and investment in compatibility and interoperability going forward,” says Capdevielle. 

New cybersecurity strategies have been released by every administration since George W. Bush over the last two decades – but Biden’s push for greater mandates on private industry makes his strategy extremely different, the New York Times reported.

GlobalData is the parent company of Verdict and its sister publications.