President Donald Trump expected to sign an executive order on cyber security on Tuesday. Dustin Volz and Steve Holland reporting in Reuters from Washington: “The order is expected to commission several different reviews of the government’s offensive and defensive cyber capabilities, according to one of the sources and a third briefed on a draft of the order that circulated last week. ... The order is expected to also initiate a audit of several federal agencies’ cyber capabilities, seek input on how to improve protections for critical infrastructure, and review government efforts to attract and train a technically sophisticated workforce.”

— Assessing the Draft Cyber Executive Order, Charley Snyder and Michael Sulmeyer from Lawfare write: “Amidst the whirlwind of executive orders and presidential memoranda that have been in the news, it was easy to miss a purported draft of President Trump’s first executive order (EO) covering cybersecurity issues, leaked to the Washington Post and released on Friday, January 27. The order, titled “Strengthening U.S. Cyber Security and Capabilities,” calls for several 60- and 100-day assessments of the state of U.S. cybersecurity and the identification of areas of improvement. ... Our bottom line up front, assuming the text of this draft does not change, is that while the intent of the executive order represents a reasonable start to getting a handle on the cybersecurity challenges that await this administration, this appears to be another case where an executive order has not been coordinated with federal departments and agencies. Compared to other recent orders, this one is fairly tame—for example, we see no attempt to scale back U.S. compliance with international law.”

— Update Jan 31: “President Trump scrapped plans on Tuesday to sign an executive action launching a government-wide cybersecurity overhaul,” Jordan Fabian reports in The Hill: “The White House did not immediately provide an explanation for the cancellation. It was an abrupt about face after the White House spent all day Tuesday plugging its plans to boost the nation’s offensive and defensive cyber capabilities.”