National Cyber Strategy of the U.S. of America

I read the Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber Strategy of the United States of America last week and this week I’ve been reading the National Cyber Strategy of the United States. Why? I think reading Cyber Strategies is the best way to understand and learn how to write a Cyber Strategy. This is obvious! In addition, reading Cyber Strategies, we can find out what are the security risks of the States or what they are worrying about. For instance, the DoD Cyber Strategy speaks about the competition with China and Russia as well as the malicious cyber activities of North Korea and Iran. Another example is the Cybersecurity Strategy of the EU which highlight the security risk of depending excessively on ICT produced outside the EU.

The first pillar of the National Cyber Strategy of the U.S. is about protecting the American People, the Homeland, and the American Way of Life. How is the government going to do this? Securing Federal Networks and Information, Securing Critical Infrastructure, Combating Cybercrime and Improving Incident Reporting. The government has written many priority actions in the first pillar such as improving federal supply chain risk management which is interesting to exclude risky vendors, products and services.

Promote American Prosperity is the second pillar of the National Cyber Strategy. The government wants to foster a vibrant and resilient digital economy. They also want to foster and protect United States ingenuity. Finally, the government wants to develop a superior cybersecurity workforce, which is aligned with the DoD Cyber Strategy of the U.S. I would like to highlight the priority action of maintaining United States leadership in emerging technologies, which means most ICT are produced in the EEUU and they want to maintain this leadership. Another interesting priority action is about updating mechanism to review foreign investment and operation in the United States where they want to know who and what foreign companies invest in the United States.

The third pillar is about preserving peace through strength. Peace and Strength in the same sentence. Interesting!! The aim is enhancing cyber stability through norms of responsible state behaviour as well as attributing and deterring unacceptable behaviour in cyberspace. The priority actions in the third pillar talk about information campaigns and non-state propaganda and disinformation. Do you remember the Cambridge Analytica consulting firm and the Trump campaign? Yes, this is to fight against online malign influences.

Advance American Influence is the last pillar of the Cyber Strategy. The government will promote an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure Internet as well as they’ll build international cyber capacity. It seems they are interested in protecting and promoting Internet freedom, me too, but I think they are especially interested in market opportunities for technological American firms because why they don’t also promote free trade? why there are a chaotic trade war?

Regards my friends. Keep reading. Keep learning!!