The Biden administration recently released its National Cybersecurity Strategy, which details key pillars to protect the nation's cyber ecosystem. The strategy calls for defending critical infrastructure against cyberattacks, disrupting and dismantling cyber criminals and forging international partnerships. While Gary Barlet, a 20-year Air Force cyber operations veteran and former Federal CIO, has expressed disappointment with the strategy, claiming that it does not reflect the severity and urgency of the current threat landscape, President Biden's proposed $842 billion Fiscal 2024 Defense Budget prioritizes spending to counter China, including $9.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and $400 million to outcompete Beijing in the military, economic and technological sectors.
U.S. Cyber Command Director Gen. Paul Nakasone testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday to warn that nation-state actors are still attempting to interfere with the U.S. Elections are conducted through influence operations and disinformation campaigns through influence operations and elections. Additionally, President Biden’s budget proposal also seeks $63 million for the Justice Department for more agents as well as intelligence collection, response, and analysis capabilities, $395 million for the State Department for global cyber and digital development initiatives, and $3.1 billion for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
The Pentagon is pursuing remote work and employee training programs to attract cyber workers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called for AI regulation to be made. The House panel approved bills to boost cyber efforts at CISA through enhanced coordination and awareness campaigns to boost the efforts. Security vendors report economic hit as they struggle to attract newer customers, and police took over the Netwire RAT malware infrastructure and arresting its admin. Iran-linked hackers used fake Atlantic Council-affiliated personas to target human rights researchers, and WhatsApp said it would rather be blocked in the UK than weaken security. Hackers used stolen student data against Minneapolis schools in a new threat.
In response to the growing cyber threat landscape, the Biden administration is shifting the responsibility to defend the cybersecurity of the nation away from individuals, small businesses and local governments to "organizations that are most capable and best positioned to reduce risks for all of us," including the federal government. The strategy will focus on disrupting and dismantling cyber criminals, including nation-state threat actors, by using all the resources necessary to "make it harder for them to threaten the national security and public safety of the country". Finally, the strategy will strengthen the collaboration with foreign partners who share a common mission to counter cyber threats.
The Biden Administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy is a comprehensive plan that seeks to strengthen the nation's cyber resilience and critical infrastructure over the next decade. It will broaden the minimum cybersecurity requirements for critical sectors, permit more public-private partnerships and modernize federal networks in order to protect against cyber threats. With increased funding for cybersecurity initiatives and programs, the Biden administration is taking the necessary steps to protect the nation from cyber criminals and nation state actors.