On cyber, Trump’s national security strategy emphasizes industry and regional partners

The Trump administration’s new national security strategy calls for working with U.S. industry and regional foreign governments to shield critical infrastructure and networks from cyberthreats.

The federal government’s “critical relationships with the American private sector help maintain surveillance of persistent threats to U.S. networks, including critical infrastructure,” the 33-page document, released late Thursday night, states.

The goal is to enable the U.S. to “conduct real-time discovery, attribution, and response (i.e., network defense and offensive cyber operations) while protecting the competitiveness of the U.S. economy and bolstering the resilience of the American technology sector,” it adds.

“Improving these capabilities will also require considerable deregulation to further improve our competitiveness, spur innovation, and increase access to America’s natural resources.” 

The strategy, which every administration must publish, argues the U.S. should focus on the Western Hemisphere overall. The document roundly criticizes Europe and says America should seek “establish strategic stability with Russia” but makes only a few, glancing mentions of cybersecurity.

The White House is expected to publish a separate national cybersecurity strategy in January. 

Hemispheric concerns

The national security strategy states the U.S. will “identify strategic acquisition and investment opportunities for American companies in the region and present these opportunities for assessment” to financing programs at a slew of federal entities, including the Millennium Challenge Corporation. National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross previously served as CEO of the foreign aid agency.

“We should also partner with regional governments and businesses to build scalable and resilient energy infrastructure, invest in critical mineral access, and harden existing and future cyber communications networks that take full advantage of American encryption and security potential,” according to the strategy.

It notes that some foreign influence by adversaries in Latin America “will be hard to reverse” due to “political alignments” with other foreign actors. However, Washington has “achieved success in rolling back outside influence in the Western Hemisphere by demonstrating, with specificity, how many hidden costs—in espionage, cybersecurity, debt-traps, and other ways—are embedded in allegedly ‘low cost’ foreign assistance. We should accelerate these efforts, including by utilizing U.S. leverage in finance and technology to induce countries to reject such assistance.”

As for Europe, the administration says its overarching policy will prioritize, among other things, encouraging the continent to “take action to combat mercantilist overcapacity, technological theft, cyber espionage, and other hostile economic practices.”