Federal Cybersecurity Advisor Floats Executive Order on Cloud Service Providers

Douglas rissing/istockphoto

The idea sprung from a sense of moral outrage Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly identified with.

Cloud service providers should not be allowed to market baseline security features as add-ons requiring special licenses, according to a prominent member of a new federal advisory committee at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

“You should not have to pay extra for security, I'm sorry, that is immoral for companies [to charge for],” said Alex Stamos, partner at the Krebs Stamos Group, who called for executive action on the matter. “I'd love to see an executive order that any cloud product that is bought by a federal agency has to support [multi factor authentication], [single sign on] and basic audit in the most base paid package.”

Stamos is one of 23 members on CISA’s new federal advisory committee which met for the first time Friday. The firm he started with former CISA Director Christopher Krebs consulted with Solar Winds after hackers infiltrated the company and subsequently compromised several federal agencies last year. Stamos also directs the Stanford Internet Observatory. Like Krebs, he built up credibility in the community while dealing with hyper-politicized election security issues.

The idea that it is simply wrong for cloud service providers to upsell security features is not new among policy makers. The aftermath of the Solar Winds event highlighted challenges tracing the attackers’ steps associated with logging capabilities being tied to higher-cost licenses at Microsoft. 

Stamos raised the issue during a discussion of how to turn the corner on cybersecurity hygiene, an area for which CISA Director Jen Easterly sought recommendations and asked George Stathakopoulos, Apple vice president of corporate information security, to lead the work.

“It is not just Microsoft, it’s a huge number of cloud companies,” Stamos said. “Apple to their credit does not do this. But a huge amount of cloud companies charge you more money so that you have to be on an enterprise license to have MFA or SSO. They need to be called out and shamed.  Honda won't sell you a car without airbags unless you pay extra, right? The airbags need to be in the baseline.” 

Other proposals raised for motivating companies to implement appropriate security measures ranged from providing tax incentives and protection from liability when they do, to enforcing fines when they fail to.

Stamos highlighted the difference in capabilities within the private sector to stress his point about the responsibility of cloud service providers.  

“Give it to everybody who's paying five bucks a month or 10 bucks a month for your product, do not charge 20 or 30 or $50 a month to get the basic security functions,” he said. “It's just a completely unethical thing. For big businesses to hold up small businesses, ‘can't be secure unless you pay me more money,’ just really pisses me off, to be frank.”

Easterly expressed optimism even while noting consternation about the exclusion of bipartisan incident reporting legislation from the next National Defense Authorization Act.   

“Alex, with the moral outrage that I think we can all align ourselves to. I agree with that, right, security should be table stakes at the end of the day,” she said, regarding Stamos’ comments. “I really feel like we can make some significant progress here, I think we're at a moment in time, so I look forward to that.”

Absent regulation, Easterly has embraced the approach of simply asking cloud and other backbone internet service providers to partner with the agency as plank bearers in a Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative that would ideally increase visibility across U.S. critical infrastructure. 

CISA’s cybersecurity advisory committee was established under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021. During the public comment portion of Friday’s meeting, Patrick Doyle. executive director of the National Technology Security Coalition, credited the group with spearheading the committee's creation.

Doyle described the NTSC as the only national organization representing chief information security officers and congratulated JPMorgan Chase and Microsoft “for their membership on the advisory committee, as they both have a board presence with the NTSC.” Microsoft is also an NTSC underwriter.

Over the next two years the committee will be chaired by Southern Company President and CEO Tom Fanning, and vice chaired by Mastercard Executive Vice President and Chief Security Officer Ronald Green.

NEXT STORY: DHS scales up bug bounty program

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.