Trump's cyber security strategy is reckless
AT first glance, it would be easy to confuse the Trump administration's new National Cyber Strategy with its predecessors: the Obama administration's 2009 Cyberspace Policy Review and George W. Bush's 2003 National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. All three documents emphasise strikingly similar goals: the importance of hardening critical infrastructure, working with the private sector, securing government networks and establishing more robust partnerships for sharing information about online threats.
Despite its similarities with previous administrations' plans, however, the National Cyber Strategy represents an abrupt and reckless shift in how the United States government engages with adversaries online.
Instead of continuing to focus on strengthening defensive technologies and minimising the impact of security breaches, the Trump administration plans to ramp up offensive cyber operations. The new goal: deter adversaries through pre-emptive cyber attacks and make other nations fear the US' retaliatory powers.
