Trump rolls back some Biden cyber and fraud directives

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that claws back a number of fraud-related mandates by his predecessor, who the Trump White House claimed had engaged in “censorship” and enabling illegal immigration.

The order, which was signed on Friday, preempts multiple efforts initiated by former President Joe Biden in the waning days of his presidency, including one to enable wider adoption of digital driver’s licenses, another to provide banks with greater access to federal data related to identity verification and one that would have notified U.S. citizens of potential benefits fraud being committed under their name.

Trump also pulled back directives that would have provided funds for certain AI-related research and engagement with other governments and the private sector related to adopting quantum-proof encryption standards.

Banks will not get more access to identity verification data

The January executive order from Biden called for potential upgrades to the Social Security Administration’s electronic Consent Based Social Security Number Verification, or eCBSV, service, which banks and credit unions currently use to verify customer identity information against agency records.

The Biden order directed the head of the Social Security Administration, or SSA, to establish “a new or significantly modified routine use of records” for identity verification and allowed for other agencies that issue identity documents, such as the Department of State which issues passports, to consider building similar services.

According to the Biden order, any such system offered by SSA or other agencies for digital identity verification should be available to government agencies, U.S.-regulated financial institutions and payment integrity programs.

The Trump executive order strikes these directions, which would have specifically enabled U.S.-regulated financial institutions to access these identity verification services.

Digital driver’s license adoption posed to stagnate

The January executive order from Biden aimed to enable more states to adopt digital driver’s licenses and instructed the federal government to begin accepting these digital documents for identity verification, particularly to reduce fraud in public benefits programs. The Biden order also encouraged federal grant-making agencies to issue grants to states developing mobile driver’s licenses.

The Trump administration’s statement on the new order alleges that the Biden administration “attempted to sneak problematic and distracting issues into cybersecurity policy.” This included, according to the statement, “introducing digital identity mandates that risked widespread abuse by enabling illegal immigrants to improperly access public benefits.”

Trump’s order “strips away inappropriate measures outside of core cybersecurity focus, including removing a mandate for U.S. government issued digital IDs for illegal aliens that would have facilitated entitlement fraud and other abuse,” according to the White House.

The Trump executive order specifically strikes section 5 of the Biden Executive Order 14144, which contained the provisions encouraging the development and acceptance of digital identity documents for public benefits programs and grants to states for mobile driver’s licenses.

Individuals will not get notified about potential benefits fraud

The January 2025 Biden executive order instructed the Treasury and General Services Administration to research, develop and conduct a pilot program for technology designed to notify individuals and entities when their identity information is used to request a payment from a public benefits program.

The goal of this technology was to give individuals and entities the option to stop potentially fraudulent transactions before they occur and report fraudulent transactions to law enforcement. While this technology might not directly affect banks, the Biden order suggested it could create a standard for informing consumers about identity-based fraud that banks and credit unions might be expected to follow.

The Trump executive order strikes these instructions.

Some quantum cryptography efforts remain intact

The January 2025 Biden executive order sought to address the risks posed by future quantum computers capable of breaking current encryption by instructing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, to release and regularly update a list of product categories supporting post-quantum cryptography, or PQC, which would help banks identify products they could trust to secure their data.

The Biden order also set requirements for national security and civilian agencies to adopt Transport Layer Security, or TLS, protocol version 1.3 or later by January 2030.

The Trump executive order amends the section in the Biden Executive Order 14144 related to quantum computing but keeps the aforementioned requirements related to product categories and TLS.

Under the Trump order, federal agencies no longer need to include PQC in product solicitations, implement PQC key establishment practices, or engage foreign governments and industry on transitioning to PQC.

AI in cybersecurity deprioritized

The January 2025 Biden executive order highlighted the potential of AI to transform cyber defense through identifying vulnerabilities, increasing threat detection scale and automating defenses.

The Biden order included provisions for accelerating AI development and deployment, exploring AI use for critical infrastructure security and accelerating AI research. Specific directives included agencies prioritizing funding for large-scale datasets for cyber defense research and ensuring accessibility, and incorporating AI software vulnerability management into existing agency processes.

The Trump administration said that the new order “refocuses artificial intelligence (AI) cybersecurity efforts towards identifying and managing vulnerabilities, rather than censorship.” The statement did not clarify how the Biden order engaged in censorship.

The Trump executive order strikes and replaces Biden’s directives with new ones requiring agencies to ensure existing datasets for cyber defense research have been made accessible to the academic community by November 1, 2025.

It also requires the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and Director of National Intelligence, in coordination with others, to incorporate management of AI software vulnerabilities and compromises into their existing processes and interagency coordination mechanisms by November 1, 2025.

Trump’s order also removes requirements that would have established a program to use advanced AI models for cyber defense and initiated a pilot program on the use of AI to enhance cyber defense in the energy sector.

The Trump order retains the requirement to incorporate management of AI software vulnerabilities and compromises into agencies’ existing processes and interagency coordination mechanisms for vulnerability management (i.e., incident tracking, response, reporting and sharing indicators of compromise for AI systems).