On October 24, 2024, President Biden signed the first-ever National Security Memorandum (“NSM”) focused on artificial intelligence (“AI”), pursuant to subsection 4.8 of Executive Order 14110. The NSM provides guidance on developing, employing, and strengthening AI usage within the federal government. The NSM outlines three main objectives which serve as guideposts in directing the U.S. […]
National Security
6th Circuit Upholds 20-year Sentence of Chinese Spy, Convicted of Espionage Crimes, Attempting to Steal Trade Secrets
On August 7, 2024, the 6th Circuit upheld a Chinese spy’s twenty-year prison sentence for attempting to steal aviation trade secrets from General Electric (GE). Yanjun Xu, a deputy director in China’s Ministry of State Security, was responsible for trying to steal aviation-related proprietary information. He spent years inviting Western aviation experts to China, attempting […]
Article: Executive Order to Limit Sales of Americans’ Sensitive Data to Adversarial Foreign Governments
Peter Swire, Senior Counsel at Alston & Bird, has co-authored a detailed article in Lawfare, “Limiting Data Broker Sales in the Name of U.S. National Security: Questions on Substance and Messaging,” analyzing the Biden Administration’s new Executive Order issued yesterday. Swire’s article summarizes key aspects and impacts of the Executive Order, which is intended to […]
Chinese Hackers Exploit Gap in Cloud Environment Used by U.S. Government
According to recent reports issued by Microsoft and U.S. government agencies, hackers recently exploited a gap in Microsoft’s cloud environment, enabling the malicious actors to access the email accounts of employees at the United States Commerce and State Departments. Including the U.S. government, around 10 organizations were victimized in the U.S. and about 25 were […]
President Trump Signs Long-Awaited Cyber Executive Order
On May 11, 2017, President Trump signed a long-awaited executive order on cybersecurity (the “Order”). The Order directs executive agencies to complete a risk management report based on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (the “Framework”) and also requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies to undertake activities in support of effective cybersecurity risk […]