April 20 (UPI) — The White House said Tuesday that President Joe Biden’s administration is beginning a 100-day plan to guard critical U.S. electric infrastructure against sophisticated cyber threats.
The plan aims to upgrade and improve defenses for electrical infrastructure and increase the government’s ability to detect and analyze cyber threats.
The plan includes what the White House called “aggressive but achievable milestones” in helping owners and operators modernize cybersecurity and enhance detection, mitigation and forensic capabilities.
“This is a coordinated effort between the Department of Energy, the electricity industry and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement.
“Protecting our nation’s critical infrastructure is a shared responsibility of government and the owners and operators of that infrastructure.”
Horne said the private sector owns much of the U.S. cyberinfrastructure and is critical in its protection.
“These efforts underscore the president’s commitment to building back better and tackling cyber threats from adversaries who seek to compromise critical systems that are essential to U.S. national and economic security,” she added.
Tuesday afternoon, Biden will speak about his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan, which aims to dedicate billions to improving physical infrastructure in the United States and create millions of new jobs for the economy.
Biden said the plan will be split into two parts — the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan, which he’s expected to unveil in a couple weeks.
Biden is scheduled to make remarks about his plan at the White House at 3:25 p.m. EDT.
