New cyber director Cairncross calls on industry to help put 'America First' in cyberspace

A top U.S. cyber official on Tuesday called on the private sector to work closely with the federal government to fulfill President Donald Trump’s “America First” vision.

“President Trump's first order principle is putting America First. The cyber strategic environment is no exception,” National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said during a keynote address at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit in Washington.

In his first major policy address since his confirmation, he rattled off today’s digital dangers, from ransomware attacks and espionage to pre-positioning in critical infrastructure and influence campaigns, saying while the U.S. has improved at “identifying, responding to and remedying threats … we still lack strategic coherence and direction.”

“We've admired the problem for too long, and now it's time to do something about it,” he told the audience, adding the administration will put forward a strategy to advance U.S. interests and thwart adversaries in cyberspace.

“Today, I seek your engagement and your help together by putting American citizens first, by putting American companies first, we'll put America First and that's the point,” he added. “Our way of life, our day-to-day, depends on an open and secure cyberspace.”

The White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) was created by Congress in 2021 to coordinate cybersecurity efforts between various government entities, develop and implement national cybersecurity policies and advise the president on critical cyber issues.

Cairncross, a former Republican National Committee official who previously served as CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation agency during Trump’s first term. He was confirmed as the nation’s cyber chief last month.

“We have all the tools we need, and now we have the political will in place to address these challenges,” according to Carincross. “We must work together, using our nation's all of our nation's cyber capabilities, to shape adversary behavior and, most importantly, shift the burden of risk in cyberspace from Americans to them. That's what my team and I are here to do.”

He identified a handful of areas where the private and public sectors could collaborate, such as pushing to renew a landmark 2015 law that turbocharged threat intelligence sharing that will expire at the end of the month without congressional action.

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Cairncross also said industry must “uphold standards like security and privacy by design,” while the government must “streamline cyber regulations and the compliance burden.”

The administration “knows that American companies are accountable first to their shareholders and boards of directors as they should be, just as our government is accountable to its people,” he told the audience. “But that doesn't negate the huge areas of alignment here, and it's our job to identify them and to act on them.

Trump “is reclaiming American superiority and greatness, and America will do the same in cyberspace,” Cairncross said.