U.S. will use a more assertive cyber defense posture

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Recent cyberattacks and intrusions by hackers, operating alone or backed by nation-states, have prompted the Pentagon and DHS to reaffirm their commitment to upholding the reliability and integrity of America’s cyber network and the systems connected to it. Americans rely on the connected Web to deliver critical services such as water and electricity, and should the Web be breached by bad actors, the consequences could threaten national security.

According to Homeland Security News Wire , in a recent speech at Stanford University, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told a room of Silicon Valley executives and cybersecurity professionals that one of the “primary aspects” of the Pentagon’s new cyber strategy is to work with domestic firms to lower the risk of a cyberattack endangering national security. “Because American businesses own, operate and see approximately 90 percent of our national networks, the private sector must be a key partner,” he said, adding that “if companies themselves don’t invest, our country’s collective cyber posture is weakened and our ability to augment that protection is limited.”

Energy Wirereports that at last week’s RSA security conference in San Francisco, DHS chief Jeh Johnson stopped by to discuss the agency’s mission and search for cyber talent. Both DHS and the Pentagon plan to open offices in Silicon Valley. Experts say the agencies’ focus on cybersecurity and engagement with the private sector will prompt a new level of thinking within the cybersecurity sector. “If we look at cyberspace as a hostile environment and there are bad people out there who want to do bad things to us, it may cause a wholesale re-examination of the way we build our systems in the first place,” noted Adam Firestone, president of cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Government Security Solutions Inc.