Announcing the Release of the Administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy

The White House released its National Cybersecurity Strategy today to establish an affirmative vision for a secure cyberspace that creates opportunities to achieve our collective aspirations.

In this decisive decade, the United States will advance cyberspace as a tool to achieve our goals in a way that reflects our values: economic security and prosperity; responsive and rights-respecting democracy; and a vibrant and diverse society.  Our rapidly evolving world demands a more intentional, more coordinated, and better-resourced approach to cyber defense.  We face a complex threat environment, with state and non-state actors developing and executing novel campaigns to threaten our interests.  At the same time, next-generation technologies are reaching maturity at an accelerating pace, creating new pathways for innovation as well as increasing digital interdependencies.

The National Cybersecurity Strategy calls for two fundamental shifts: rebalancing the responsibility to defend cyberspace and realigning incentives to favor long-term investments.  The digital ecosystem’s biggest, most capable, and best-positioned actors – be they in the public or private sectors – can and should assume a greater share of the burden for mitigating cyber risk.  When entities across the public and private sectors face trade-offs between temporary fixes and long-term solutions, they must have the resources, capabilities, and incentives to choose the latter.

The U.S. commitment to international partnerships on cyber issues remains strong, and the Strategy emphasizes working with our allies and partners to build a defensible, resilient, and values-aligned digital ecosystem.  Advancing shared goals requires promoting a global cyberspace where responsible state behavior is expected and where irresponsible behavior is both costly and isolating.

This Strategy sets out a path to secure the promise of our digital future.  Its implementation will build a durable cyber foundation for the Administration’s goals in infrastructure, clean energy, equity, democracy, and economic opportunity.  Fundamentally, it recognizes that cyberspace does not exist as its own end, but as a tool to pursue our highest aspirations.

For further information, see the National Cybersecurity Strategy.

Follow the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy on Twitter @StateCDP.