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
Continue Reading CISA Releases Cybersecurity Performance Goals 2.0 for Critical Infrastructure
John Webster Leslie
Web Leslie advises clients on a broad range of challenges and opportunities at the intersection of technology and security, including investigations, regulatory, and transactional matters related to cybersecurity, national security, critical infrastructure, and data privacy.
In his white-collar practice, Web helps clients navigate both government and internal investigations. He specializes in complex civil and criminal investigations related to alleged government contracts fraud and other cybersecurity-related allegations under the False Claims Act, FTC Act, and equivalent state laws. Additionally, Web assists clients in responding to a variety of cyber incidents, ranging from intrusions and extortion by advanced persistent threats to business email compromises and large-scale data breaches. Web also helps clients investigate insider threat activity and potential noncompliance with regulatory and contractual cybersecurity requirements.
In his advisory and transactional practice, Web assists clients across a wide range of industries and critical infrastructure sectors manage risk in an evolving regulatory landscape. He regularly advises on cybersecurity compliance and best practices, information security program development, incident response preparedness, insider threat risks, third-party risk management, and international cyber regulations, among other areas. Web also advises clients on a variety of government and industry standards, including the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-171, FedRAMP and state equivalents (e.g., GovRAMP, TX-RAMP), CJIS, ISO/IEC standards (e.g., ISO 27001), SOC2 Type 2, and other sector-specific requirements (e.g., HIPAA Security Rule, PCI DSS, DFARS Clause 252.204-7012, NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection).
In addition to his regular practice, Web counsels pro bono clients on data breach, immigration, and criminal law matters.
Web previously served in government in different roles at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including at the National Protection and Programs Directorate—known today as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)—where he specialized in cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection, public-private partnerships, and interagency cyber operations. He also served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Latest Cybersecurity False Claims Act Settlement with Diagnostics Provider Focuses on Sensitive Health Systems
In a recently announced settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), Illumina, Inc. (“Illumina”) agreed to pay $9.8 million to resolve claims arising from alleged cybersecurity vulnerabilities in genomic sequencing systems that the company sold to federal agencies. The case is the latest in a series of False…
Continue Reading Latest Cybersecurity False Claims Act Settlement with Diagnostics Provider Focuses on Sensitive Health SystemsCISA Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Incident Reporting
On March 27, 2024, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (“CISA”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Proposed Rule”) related to the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (“CIRCIA”) was released on the Federal Register website. The Proposed Rule, which will be formally published in the Federal Register on April 4, 2024, proposes draft regulations to implement the incident reporting requirements for critical infrastructure entities from CIRCIA, which President Biden signed into law in March 2022. CIRCIA established two cyber incident reporting requirements for covered critical infrastructure entities: a 24-hour requirement to report ransomware payments and a 72-hour requirement to report covered cyber incidents to CISA. While the overarching requirements and structure of the reporting process were established under the law, CIRCIA also directed CISA to issue the Proposed Rule within 24 months of the law’s enactment to provide further detail on the scope and implementation of these requirements. Under CIRCIA, the final rule must be published by September 2025.
The Proposed Rule addresses various elements of CIRCIA, which will be covered in a forthcoming Client Alert. This blog post focuses primarily on the proposed definitions of two pivotal terms that were left to further rulemaking under CIRCIA (Covered Entity and Covered Cyber Incident), which illustrate the broad scope of CIRCIA’s reporting requirements, as well as certain proposed exceptions to the reporting requirements. The Proposed Rule will be subject to a review and comment period for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Continue Reading CISA Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Incident Reporting
Department of Commerce Issues Proposed Rule to Regulate Infrastructure-as-a-Service Providers and Resellers
On January 29, 2024, the Department of Commerce (“Department”) published a proposed rule (“Proposed Rule”) to require providers and foreign resellers of U.S. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (“IaaS”) products to (i) verify the identity of their foreign customers and (ii) notify the Department when a foreign person transacts with that provider or reseller to train a large artificial intelligence (“AI”) model with potential capabilities that could be used in malicious cyber-enabled activity. The proposed rule also contemplates that the Department may impose special measures to be undertaken by U.S. IaaS providers to deter foreign malicious cyber actors’ use of U.S. IaaS products. The accompanying request for comments has a deadline of April 29, 2024.
The Proposed Rule would effectuate many of the requirements laid out in the Executive Order on Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities (“E.O. 13984”). E.O. 13984, issued three years prior to the Proposed Rule, set in motion requirements for IaaS providers to enact certain customer identity verification procedures and take special measures to prevent their services from being used by foreign actors for malicious cyber-enabled activities. The AI provisions of the Proposed Rule stem from the more recent Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (“E.O. 14110″), issued on October 30, 2023, which directed the Department to propose regulations for U.S. IaaS providers to (i) submit reports to the Department when a customer transacts with the provider to train an AI model that could be used for malicious cyber-enabled activities and (ii) ensure foreign resellers of IaaS products also conduct identity verification of foreign account holders.
The proposed regulations are further explained and summarized below:Continue Reading Department of Commerce Issues Proposed Rule to Regulate Infrastructure-as-a-Service Providers and Resellers