U.S. Global Cybersecurity Strategy

What’s the Latest Development?

The White House has unveiled its blueprint for an international cyberspace strategy. Recognizing that threats to national and international security now really have no borders, the government hopes to promote development of norms of responsible state behavior to promote a secure, open Internet and other critical computer networks. The plan is to also help prevent theft of private information and ensure general internet freedom.

What’s the Big Idea?

It’s broad, it’s general and it’s early days but is this a good starting point? And will it have power over those most likely to breach such norms? After all, while administration officials “did not single out any countries in announcing the strategy, several officials said privately that the hope was that the initiative would prod China and Russia into allowing more Internet freedom, cracking down on intellectual property theft and enacting stricter laws to protect computer users’ privacy.”