White House AI task force urges 12 months of liability relief for companies that report cyber incidents

The White House's AI task force is urging federal agencies to "implement limitations on regulatory liability for good-faith voluntary reporting of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents" for at least the next 12 months, Cybersecurity Dive reports. The relief could be extended based on an ongoing evaluation of the risk landscape, the task force said in a statement after its second meeting on Thursday.

"It is clear that the cybersecurity risk environment has changed and organizations that only a short time ago had reasonable protections in place are now more vulnerable," the task force said. "As a result, prior standards for taking regulatory action against organizations in response to cyber incidents may be outdated." It said its goal was to ease requirements that could have "a chilling effect on reporting and information sharing."

National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross and Emil Michael, the Pentagon's top research official, discussed setting up a process for companies to voluntarily report AI-related incidents, under which the government would analyse reports and share information with the private sector. The task force also repeated the administration's support for reauthorising the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act and said the government is working with frontier AI labs on tools to strengthen defences. The National Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have been testing new frontier models with major labs, according to the report. In October the White House ordered AI incident reporting after incidents involving Anthropic models.