9/21/2018

CYBERWAR/DHS/INTELLIGENCE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration touted the National Cyber Strategy it released Thursday [9-20-18] as proof of its commitment to protecting U.S. government networks and critical infrastructure from cyber threats, but the document offered little new information about how President Donald Trump plans to improve U.S. cybersecurity, even as intelligence officials continue to warn that the Russian government is meddling in the midterms. The report focuses on four key ‘pillars’ of activity, including protecting government networks and critical infrastructure, developing a cyber workforce and deterring malicious cyber activity by foreign adversaries. But it mostly describes work that is already underway, from election security partnerships with state and local officials to modernizing cybercrime laws. In the document, the administration says it will continue expanding DHS oversight of federal civilian networks and share more threat data with telecoms. One of the few concrete new actions described in the report is the creation of a Cyber Deterrence Initiative, through which the U.S. will build coalitions and ‘develop tailored strategies’ for jointly attributing cyberattacks and imposing costs on their perpetrators. The U.S. and the UK partnered for the first joint attribution in history in December 2017, when they blamed North Korea for the WannaCry malware.”

Tim Starks, “Trump cyber strategy drops,” Politico, September 21, 2018 10:00 am