President Donald Trump on June 6 signed an executive order revamping U.S. cybersecurity policy by targeting foreign threats, updating encryption standards and rolling back elements of Obama- and Biden-era approaches.
The EO directs federal agencies to act across several fronts, including improving secure software development and strengthening border gateway protections to prevent hijacked internet traffic.
It criticizes previous policies, saying the Biden administration introduced digital ID mandates, burdensome software compliance rules and centralized cybersecurity decisions that distracted from real threats and weakened agency-level innovation.
“Cybersecurity is too important to be reduced to a mere political football,” the EO states.
The order emphasizes post-quantum cryptography to address future computing threats and mandates updated encryption protocols to better protect data. It redirects federal use of artificial intelligence toward identifying and managing vulnerabilities rather than enforcing content controls.
Trump has already taken steps to remove barriers to AI innovation, aiming to keep the U.S. tech sector competitive and free from ideological bias, according to the EO.
The order also introduces security labeling for Internet of Things devices to help consumers identify products that meet baseline cybersecurity standards. It narrows the application of cyber sanctions to foreign malicious actors and excludes election-related activity and domestic political groups.
Finally, the EO eliminates measures it deems unrelated to cybersecurity, including a proposed digital ID system for undocumented immigrants, citing concerns about potential fraud.