New National Cyber Strategy

Late yesterday, the White House issued its new National Cyber Strategy.  

Pravin Kothari, CEO at CipherCloud (San Jose, CA):

“The new policy is a good step forward. That said, the details count. Cyber defense is all about choosing specific technologies and implementing them with speed and the right human capital. The rubber hits the proverbial road below the policy level and right now there isn’t much to work with. NIST has put some good ideas in place but the necessary technologies to shut down cyber threats are not being used by over 95% of businesses in the U.S. There is a very long way to go and time is not on our side.”

“The other important change is the notion of going on offense at the national level to protect our government and business entities. Offense may be the best way to deal with advanced cyber attackers based offshore in far-flung international locations. This way, sophisticated defenders can reach out to stop nation-state attackers and organized crime. The average business or municipality has no ability at any level to deal with these threats directly. The government needs to step up and we’re glad to see it happen. All of this aggressive defense must happen in the context of the rule of law and with the cooperation and alignment of our allies. There is no other way forward.”