On June 22, 2026, the White House released two Executive Orders (EOs) on quantum technologies: Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks (EO 14412) and Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation (EO 14413). Through the first EO, the White House seeks “to safeguard America’s most sensitive data, [U.S.] critical infrastructure, and the digital economy that drives jobs and growth.” (For further reading on this topic, our Post-Quantum Cryptography: A Practical Guide provides a high-level overview of steps organizations should consider to move toward post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to protect their systems.) The second EO, in comparison, seeks “to supercharge U.S. innovation in quantum technologies.” Together, these EOs reflect a continued U.S. government focus on core themes in the quantum space — security and innovation.
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Caleb Skeath
Caleb Skeath helps companies manage their most complex and highâstakes cybersecurity and data security challenges, combining deep regulatory insight, technical fluency, and practical judgment informed by leading incident response matters.
Caleb Skeath advises inâhouse legal and security teams on the full lifecycle of cybersecurity and privacy risk—from governance and preparedness through incident response, regulatory engagement, and followâon litigation. A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), he is trusted by clients across highly regulated and technologyâdriven sectors to provide clear, practical guidance at moments when legal judgment, technical understanding, and business realities must be aligned.
Caleb has deep experience leading and overseeing responses to complex cybersecurity incidents, including ransomware, data theft and extortion, business email compromise, advanced persistent threats and state-sponsored threat actors, insider threats, and inadvertent data loss. He regularly helps inâhouse counsel structure and manage investigations under attorneyâclient privilege; coordinate with internal IT, information security, and executive stakeholders; and engage with forensic firms, crisis communications providers, insurers, and law enforcement. A central focus of his practice is advising on notification obligations and strategy, including the application of U.S. federal and state data breach notification laws and requirements along with contractual notification obligations, and helping companies make defensible, riskâinformed decisions about timing, scope, and messaging.
In addition to his work responding to cybersecurity incidents, Caleb works closely with clients’ legal, technical, and compliance teams on cybersecurity governance, regulatory compliance, and preâincident planning. He has extensive experience drafting and reviewing cybersecurity policies, incident response plans, and vendor contract provisions; supervising cybersecurity assessments under privilege; and advising on training and tabletop exercises designed to prepare organizations for realâworld incidents. His work frequently involves translating evolving regulatory expectations into actionable guidance for inâhouse counsel, including in highly-regulated sectors such as the financial sector (including compliance with NYDFS cybersecurity regulations, the Computer Security Incident Notification Rule, and GLBA guidelines and guidance) and the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector (including compliance with GxP standards, FDA medical device guidance, and HIPAA).
Caleb’s practice also addresses evolving and emerging areas of cybersecurity and data security law, including advising clients on compliance with the Department of Justice’s Data Security Program, CISAârelated security requirements for restricted transactions, and preparation for new regulatory regimes such as the CCPA cybersecurity audit requirements and federal incident reporting obligations. He regularly counsels clients on how artificial intelligence and connected devices intersect with cybersecurity, privacy, and consumer protection risk, and how to support innovation while managing regulatory exposure.
Caleb also has extensive experience helping clients navigate high-stakes cybersecurity-related inquiries from the Federal Trade Commission, state Attorneys General, and other sector-specific regulators, including incident-specific inquiries as well as broader inquiries related to an entity’s cybersecurity practices and the security of product or service offerings. For companies that have entered into cybersecurity-related settlement agreements with regulators, Caleb has helped guide them through compliance with settlement agreement obligations, including navigating required third-party assessments and strategically responding to cybersecurity incidents that can arise while a company is subject to a settlement agreement. Caleb also routinely works hand-in-hand with colleagues in Covington’s class action litigation, commercial litigation, and insurance recovery practices to prepare for and successfully navigate incident-related disputes that can devolve into litigation.
White House Releases Executive Order on Advanced AI Innovation and Security
On June 2, 2026, the White House issued an executive order titled “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security” (the “Order”). The Order reflects the Administration’s stated policy of advancing U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence (“AI”) while addressing national security risks associated with increasingly capable AI systems. To accomplish these policy goals, the Order outlines two approaches: (1) strengthening U.S. Government and private industry cyber defenses in response to “advanced AI,” and (2) developing voluntary benchmarking and review frameworks for secure development and release of “frontier” AI models.
Continue Reading White House Releases Executive Order on Advanced AI Innovation and SecurityCISA Releases Guidance on the Careful Adoption of Agentic AI Services
Earlier this month, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in collaboration with the National Security Agency and other international partners, released guidance for organizations on adopting agentic artificial intelligence systems (i.e., systems composed of one or more agents that fundamentally rely on an AI model, such as an LLM, to interpret and reason about the state of the world and can autonomously make decisions and take actions). The guidance highlights the primary security risks and challenges linked to agentic AI and offers practical guidance for safely designing, implementing, and managing these systems.
Continue Reading CISA Releases Guidance on the Careful Adoption of Agentic AI ServicesWhite House Releases New National Cyber Strategy and Executive Order
On March 6, 2026, the Administration released “President Trump’s Cyber Strategy for America” alongside an Executive Order (entitled “Combating Cybercrime, Fraud, and Predatory Schemes Against American Citizens”) and accompanying Fact Sheet. The framework set forth in the Strategy document is significantly shorter and higher-level than the prior National Cybersecurity Strategy issued in March 2023. We have summarized below the highlights of the Strategy document (Part I) and the Executive Order (Part II), along with key takeaways from each and areas to watch going forward.
Continue Reading White House Releases New National Cyber Strategy and Executive OrderNIST Publishes Preliminary Draft of Cybersecurity Framework Profile for Artificial Intelligence for Public Comment
On December 16, 2025, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) published a preliminary draft of the Cybersecurity Framework Profile for Artificial Intelligence (“Cyber AI Profile” or “Profile”). According to the draft, the Cyber AI Profile is intended to “provide guidelines for managing cybersecurity risk related to AI systems [and] identify[] opportunities for using AI to enhance cybersecurity capabilities.” The draft Profile uses the existing voluntary NIST Cybersecurity Framework (“CSF”) 2.0 — which “provides guidance to industry, government agencies, and other organizations to manage cybersecurity risks” — and overlays three AI Focus Areas (Secure, Detect, Thwart) on top of the CSF’s outcomes (Functions, Categories, and Subcategories) to suggest considerations for organizations to prioritize when securing AI implementations, using AI to enhance cybersecurity defenses, or defending against adversarial uses of AI. This draft guidance will likely be familiar to organizations that already leverage the CSF 2.0 in their cybersecurity programs and might be complimentary to existing frameworks that organizations already have in place. Even so, the outcomes are designed to be flexible such that a range of organizations (with mature or novel programs) can leverage the guidance to help manage AI-related cybersecurity risk.
Continue Reading NIST Publishes Preliminary Draft of Cybersecurity Framework Profile for Artificial Intelligence for Public CommentCISA Releases Cybersecurity Performance Goals 2.0 for Critical Infrastructure
On December 11, 2025, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) released its Cybersecurity Performance Goals 2.0 (“CPG 2.0”), an update to its core set of recommended cybersecurity practices for critical infrastructure owners and operators, which we previously wrote about here. Established by the 2021 National Security Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems, the CPGs provide a list of essential, outcome-driven cybersecurity “goals” to establish “a common understanding of the baseline security practices” for critical infrastructure owners and operators, including government contractors and defense contractors. The CPGs, which are voluntary, apply to both information technology (“IT”) and operational technology (“OT”) environments and are designed to reduce risk related to known, high-impact cyber threats and adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures (“TTPs”).
Continue Reading CISA Releases Cybersecurity Performance Goals 2.0 for Critical InfrastructureSEC Voluntarily Dismisses SolarWinds Litigation
On November 20, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that it was voluntarily dismissing the case it brought against SolarWinds Corp. (“SolarWinds”) and its information security officer, Timothy Brown, regarding the company’s security practices and related statements in connection with the “Sunburst” cybersecurity incident. The SEC stated in a brief release that its decision to dismiss with prejudice the case against SolarWinds and Mr. Brown was “in the exercise of its discretion” and “does not necessarily reflect the Commission’s position on any other case.”
Continue Reading SEC Voluntarily Dismisses SolarWinds LitigationNYDFS Publishes Industry Guidance on Managing Cyber Risks Related to Third-Party Service Providers
On October 21, 2025, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) issued an industry letter (the “Guidance”) highlighting the cybersecurity risks related to Covered Entities’ use of Third-Party Service Providers (“TPSPs”) and providing strategies to address these risks. The Guidance is addressed to all Covered Entities subject to NYDFS’s cybersecurity regulation codified at 23 NYCRR Part 500 (“Cybersecurity Regulation”), which requires Covered Entities to implement a comprehensive cybersecurity program that includes written policies addressing TPSP risks as well as due diligence, contractual requirements, and periodic assessments for TPSPs. While the Guidance is explicit that it “does not impose any new requirements” beyond those already included in the Cybersecurity Regulation, it provides significant additional detail to clarify how to comply with existing requirements and offers industry best practices to mitigate TPSP-related cyber risks. As the Guidance suggests that NYDFS will continue to focus on TPSP-related cyber risks, Covered Entities should consider reviewing their TPSP oversight and management against the specific recommendations from the Guidance and adjusting their practices where appropriate. Alongside a review of TPSP oversight and management, Covered Entities may also consider reviewing their implementation of the provisions of the Cybersecurity Regulation requiring multifactor authentication, asset management, and data retention, which take effect on November 1, 2025.
Continue Reading NYDFS Publishes Industry Guidance on Managing Cyber Risks Related to Third-Party Service ProvidersCybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 Allowed to Sunset
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (“CISA 2015”), which provided protections for sharing cybersecurity threat information with the federal government and others, officially sunset on September 30, 2025 pursuant to the law’s original sunset date after efforts to re-authorize it did not succeed. The law created a cybersecurity information…
Continue Reading Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 Allowed to SunsetCISA Delays Cyber Incident Reporting Rule for Critical Infrastructure
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) plans to delay the publication of its much-anticipated cybersecurity incident reporting rule implementing the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (“CIRCIA”). According to an entry on the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, released on September…
Continue Reading CISA Delays Cyber Incident Reporting Rule for Critical Infrastructure