Analysts Laud New Federal Cyber Strategies.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin
• Position: Algorithmic Warfare

* With high-tech adversaries increasingly targeting U.S. government networks, two recently released cybersecurity strategies are a step in the right direction, experts have said.

The National Cyber Strategy and a summary of the Defense Department's Cyber Strategy were both released in September. The documents provided high-level objectives for the Pentagon and other federal agencies to better wrap their arms around cybersecurity issues.

In the National Cyber Strategy--the first of its kind in 15 years--President Donald Trump said the document explains how his administration plans to defend the homeland; protect American prosperity; deter and punish malicious actors; and expand American influence abroad to push for an "open, interoperable, reliable and secure internet."

Protecting space assets is also a focus of the document.

The Pentagon's strategy clearly laid out that its main focus is on cyber threats from peer adversaries, though North Korea and Iran also pose risks.

"We are engaged in a long-term strategic competition with China and Russia," the document said. "These states have expanded that competition to include persistent campaigns in and through cyberspace that pose long-term strategic risk to the nation as well as to our allies and partners."

China, for example, is "eroding U.S. military overmatch and is persistently exfiltrating sensitive information from the U.S. public and private sector."

Russia, on the other hand, is using cyber-enabled information operations to influence the U.S. population and challenge its democratic processes, the strategy said.

"Globally, the scope and pace of malicious cyber activity continue to rise," the document said. "The United States' growing dependence on the cyberspace domain for nearly every essential civilian and military function makes this an urgent and unacceptable risk to the nation."

The main objectives of the Pentagon's strategy are to ensure the joint force can achieve its mission in a contested cyberspace environment, strengthen the joint force by conducting cyberspace operations that enhance U.S. military advantages, defend U.S. critical infrastructure from malicious cyber activity, secure Pentagon information systems, and expand the Defense Department's cyber cooperation with interagency, industry and international partners.

The strategy came out just a few weeks before the Government Accountability Office released a new report, "Weapon Systems Cybersecurity: DoD Just Beginning to...