Security Snippets: Biden Administration announces global cybersecurity strategy

Recognizing emerging technologies and cyber threats as an inflection point for U.S. competition with geopolitical rivals, the U.S. State Department announced the U.S. International Cyberspace and Digital Policy Strategy.

The United States is committed “not to ‘digital sovereignty’ but ‘digital solidarity,’” according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

This framing emphasizes U.S. partnership with stakeholders around the world that share a commitment to an open, safe, and secure technological future that fosters resilient and democratic societies. The strategy further explains that digital solidarity entails assisting victims of cybercrimes; supporting partners in deploying safe, secure, resilient, and sustainable technologies; building coalitions to shape the digital revolution at all levels of the technology stack; and promoting human rights-respecting data governance and norms.

The State Department has identified four areas to prioritize over the next three to five years to build digital solidarity.

1. Open, inclusive, secure, and resilient digital ecosystem: This action area emphasizes secure telecommunication networks, cloud services, data centers, undersea cables, satellite communication networks,  and related infrastructure technologies.
2. Rights-respecting approaches to digital governance: The State Department will support international efforts to harmonize secure cross-border data transfer mechanisms, interoperable standards, transparent processes for developing international standards with diverse participation, building a rights-based vision for the digital future, and negotiation of a right-respecting cybercrime treaty.
3. Responsible state behavior in cyberspace: The United States will emphasize responsible cyber norms at the United Nations, support allies facing cybercrimes, lead efforts to address cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, hold states accountable for malicious cyber activity, affirm application of mutual defense treaties in cyberspace, and counter criminal ransomware actors and commercial spyware use.
4. Digital policy and cyber capacity: To expand digital policy, legal, and regulatory capacity both at home and abroad, the State Department will coordinate with other agencies and stakeholders, augment partners’ capacity building efforts, and modernize with new tools for cyber assistance.

Authored by Nathan Salminen and Soojin Jeong.