Cybersecurity Regulation Harmonization Faces Hurdles Despite Progress, Industry Panel Reveals

A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has highlighted ongoing challenges and opportunities in harmonizing federal cybersecurity regulations, drawing on perspectives from industry representatives. The report underscores the critical importance of consistent cybersecurity standards for the nation’s essential services, which are increasingly reliant on computer-based systems and electronic data. These systems are fundamental to the operations of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors, including energy, transportation, and healthcare, and their security directly impacts public confidence, the national economy, and overall welfare.

The GAO’s findings indicate that while federal agencies are actively working to protect critical infrastructure from cyber threats through various regulations, these efforts can lead to conflicting guidance, inconsistencies, and redundancies. Harmonization, defined as the development and adoption of uniform standards and regulations, is crucial to prevent overlapping, duplicative, or contradictory requirements. Given that much of the nation’s critical infrastructure is privately owned, effective collaboration between the public and private sectors is deemed vital for asset protection. The GAO has long recognized cybersecurity as a government-wide high-risk area and has previously called for a national cybersecurity strategy.

Industry participants in a GAO-convened panel discussion acknowledged that efforts by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to provide guidance, tools, and risk assessments have been beneficial. They also noted that some federal agencies have adopted existing assessment tools to aid in cybersecurity evaluations. However, the panel also identified significant negative impacts stemming from multiple and overlapping cybersecurity regulations. These challenges include burdensome and duplicative requirements due to sectors being subject to various regulatory frameworks.

Furthermore, industry representatives pointed to minor differences in definitions and requirements across different federal frameworks, which create confusion despite similar underlying controls and reporting obligations. Incident reporting requirements were also a major concern, with participants detailing difficulties and technical burdens in meeting varying demands for detail, timeframes, and thresholds across different agencies. This complexity makes it challenging to collect and submit required information within short deadlines.

Despite these obstacles, the panel recognized that some progress has been made in harmonizing federal cybersecurity regulations, particularly through federal agencies offering cybersecurity guidance. However, many participants agreed that this progress has been limited. They also discussed challenges faced by federal agencies in achieving harmonization, noting that agency reporting requirements can sometimes conflict with industry priorities.

Looking ahead, numerous opportunities for improving the harmonization of federal cybersecurity regulations were identified. In the short term, participants suggested renewing or revising existing legislation, such as the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015. They also indicated that an anticipated regulation on cyber incident reporting could potentially streamline other disparate regulations. For the longer term, recommendations included establishing a federal working group, developing metrics to measure regulatory effectiveness, focusing on deconflicting existing regulations, standardizing terminology, and ensuring the confidentiality of shared cybersecurity information. The GAO convened this panel discussion on September 17, 2025, with seven representatives from various industry organizations across multiple critical infrastructure sectors, including IT and cybersecurity directors, CIOs, and legal and regulatory affairs specialists.

Article by Mel Anara, based upon information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

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