GoKawiilThe Trump administration released a notably hawkish vision of American cyber power that blends deregulation at home with deterrence and offense against adversaries abroad.
In a relatively brief seven-page document published on Friday, President Trump's Cyber Strategy for America framed cybersecurity both as a defensive IT challenge and as a strategic domain where the US must assert dominance amid intensifying geopolitical rivalries. American response to cyber threats will not be confined to the cyber realm, the document warned.
A Statement of Posture, Not Implementation
Along with the strategy proposals, the president also issued an executive order (EO) on Friday aimed at disrupting the operations of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and other cybercriminals who engage in ransomware, phishing campaigns, financial fraud and other malicious activities against US targets. The EO provides for the creation of a new operational unit within the National Coordination Center (NCC) that will be responsible for coordinating federal efforts to "detect, disrupt, dismantle, and deter" foreign adversaries that target US persons and assets in cyberspace.
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Bruce Jenkins, chief information security officer (CISO) at Black Duck, says the strategy framework is notably light on specifics and ambiguous by design. "It is a statement of posture and priorities, not an implementation playbook," Jenkins tells Dark Reading. "That is a meaningful departure from more prescriptive strategies issued by prior administrations."
Trump's cybersecurity strategy pointed to several recent operations as examples of the cyber capabilities the administration says it wants to expand. This included the seizure of $15 billion in Bitcoin from a Cambodian conglomerate charged with conducting financial fraud or "pig butchering" on a global scale; an operation targeting Iran's nuclear infrastructure; and another during the military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. "Adversaries are on notice that America’s cyber operators and tools are the best in the world and can be swiftly and effectively deployed to defend America's interests," the document stated.
Six Core Pillars of Cybersecurity
The strategy itself is organized around six policy pillars, each addressing a different dimension of what the Trump administration sees as the current biggest cybersecurity challenges.
The first one is focused on detecting and disrupting adversaries before they penetrate US networks, using the full range of the federal government's offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. It provides incentives for the private sector to "identify and disrupt adversary networks," and notes how US citizens and companies should not be expected to fend off sophisticated nation-state actors, cybercrime groups and other threat actors on their own.
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