The US Department of Defense (DoD) this week published an unclassified summary of its 2023 Cyber Strategy, outlining plans for both offensive and defensive efforts.
One key focus of the 2023 Cyber Strategy is the commitment to boost the cyber capabilities of allies and partners, and to increase collective resilience against cyberattacks.
This includes augmenting the capacity of partners and expanding their access to cybersecurity infrastructure, as well as helping them mature their cyber workforce through training events and exercises.
Partners may also be directly helped in developing their capabilities by enabling functions they need but do not have.
Another key effort of the cyber strategy is defending the nation and its critical infrastructure. This involves not only actual defense but also disrupting and degrading threat actors’ capabilities and infrastructure.
The Pentagon will also focus on the security of the DoD information network and leverage cyberspace operations to generate asymmetric advantages, noting that China and Russia have “embraced malicious cyber activity as a means to counter U.S. conventional military power and degrade the combat capability of the Joint Force.”
In addition, the DoD wants its efforts to have long-term impact.
“We will optimize the organizing, training, and equipping of the Cyberspace Operations Forces and Service-retained cyber forces. We will ensure the availability of timely and actionable intelligence in support of cyberspace operations and explore the intersection of emerging technologies and cyber capabilities. We will foster a culture of cybersecurity and cyber awareness, investing in the education, training, and knowledge development of personnel across the defense enterprise,” the DoD said in its summary.
Earlier this year, the DoD announced the launch of a new ‘Hack the Pentagon’ website, whose goal is to help its organizations launch bug bounty programs and recruit security researchers.
The Pentagon has run more than 40 bug bounty projects to date, including Hack the Pentagon, Hack the Air Force, Hack the Army, Hack the Marine Corps, Hack the Defense Travel System, Hack DHS, and Hack US.
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