The Problem:
Federal cybersecurity regulations are increasingly fragmented and duplicative. Private sector entities—especially those operating in critical infrastructure—must navigate conflicting requirements across multiple agencies, often submitting the same information in different formats and on varying timelines. This inefficiency burdens industry, consumes security budgets, and weakens national resilience.
The Approach:
Using artificial intelligence tools—specifically natural language processing and semantic clustering—we analyzed 304 cybersecurity-related regulations across the federal government to quantify duplication and identify opportunities for streamlining.
Key Findings:
- 76% (232 of 304 regulations) are functionally duplicative across two or more agencies.
- Incident reporting mandates are inconsistent and overlapping.
- Only 3 of 22 agencies accept documentation from another agency, despite requiring similar content.
- Common language, different agencies:
- 220,000 federal contractors are subject to overlapping cybersecurity mandates.
- An estimated 40% of industry cyber budgets are directed toward compliance—not risk mitigation.
Functional Overlap (304 Regulations):
Category Number of Rules (% of Total)
Security Planning 144 (47%)
Compliance 68 (22%)
Risk Management 20 (7%)
Incident Response 14 (5%)
The Solution:
Cybersecurity regulation has evolved into a fragmented system of overlapping mandates. Artificial intelligence provides a practical solution—empowering Congress, OMB, and federal agencies to identify redundancies, streamline requirements, and reorient oversight toward real risk reduction. Based on current estimates, eliminating duplicative cybersecurity mandates could reduce compliance burdens by up to 40%, generating potential cost savings in the billions across critical infrastructure sectors and the federal contracting base.
Methodology
Dataset: 304 eCFR regulations that included the word “cybersecurity” | Process: Using Claude Opus 4 we did the following: NLP tokenization → Jaccard similarity → Functional clustering → Text verification
45+ Incident Reporting Requirements (22 Agencies)
| Timeline | Requirement |
| 1 hour | Federal agencies → CISA |
| 36 hours | Banks → Regulators |
| 72 hours | Critical infrastructure → CISA |
| 4 days | Public companies → SEC |
Verified Duplications
Functional Duplicates (67%+ NLP similarity)
- FTC: “reasonably foreseeable risks”
- SEC: “material risks from threats”
- DoD: “NIST 800-171 controls” → Same risk assessment, different words
Impact Metrics
- 49-79% conflicting parameters between agencies
- 220,000 contractors affected
- 40% cyber budgets → compliance
Agency Overlap Matrix
- Financial: 8 agencies (SEC, CFTC, FTC, OCC, Fed, FDIC, NCUA, Treasury)
- Energy: 4 agencies audit identical controls
- Defense: DoD requirements + civilian mandates
Functional Distribution (304 regulations)
- Security Planning: 144 (47%)
- Compliance: 68 (22%)
- Risk Management: 20 (7%)
- Incident Response: 14 (5%)
Bottom Line
- 232 of 304 regulations (76%) show cross-agency duplication
- Based on functional overlap across 2+ agencies
- Highest duplication: Planning (17 agencies) & Compliance (17 agencies)
- Only 3 of 22 agencies accept another’s documentation
