President Donald Trump signed an ordinance on Tuesday to prevent foreign actors from using cloud computing platforms for malicious cyber interference against the US.
The mandate, signed by Trump on the last full day in office, instructs the Commerce Department to develop rules by which cloud service providers must identify and take action against foreign companies that are suspected of providing the services for malicious purposes Leverage cyber-enabled activities.
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"Foreign malicious cyber actors want to harm the US economy by stealing intellectual property and sensitive data and endanger national security by targeting the US's critical infrastructure for malicious cyber-enabled activities," said Trump.
"This order gives the authority to impose record-keeping obligations in relation to foreign transactions," it says.
Trump's order comes two weeks after several US intelligence agencies attributed an elaborate malware campaign to Russia. The massive breach has reportedly compromised an email system used by finance executives and systems of several other federal agencies.
Trump was reluctant to blame Russia as a source of cyber interference in the US and instead suggested that China was responsible for the hack.
In 2020, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee released a report highlighting several cases where the Trump campaign was carried out advertised stolen material from Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign, even after US intelligence agencies warned that the data came from the Kremlin.
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