U.S. Department of Defense releases 2023 Cyber Strategy

The Department of Defense (DoD) released its Cyber Strategy 2023 on May 24, 2023, sending its classified version to Congress. An unclassified “fact sheet” has been released for public awareness today, and an unclassified summary will be made available in the future. The strategy outlines the DoD’s vision for cyberspace and its approach to defending the nation in this domain. The cyber strategy is “grounded in real-world experience”, and builds upon lessons learned from the ongoing Ukraine conflict.

This is the first update to the DoD cybersecurity strategy since 2018 and follows the National Cybersecurity Strategy announcement in March.

“Since 2018, the Department has conducted a number of significant cyberspace operations through its policy of defending forward, actively disrupting malicious cyber activity before it can affect the U.S. Homeland,” it states. “This strategy is further informed by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has demonstrated how cyber capabilities may be used in large-scale conventional conflict.”

DoD recognizes Cyber is vital to “Defending the Nation”

The updated strategy begins by proclaiming cyberspace is a “critical operational environment” for the DoD. It notes that the DoD relies on cyberspace to conduct its operations and that it is therefore essential to protect this environment from attack.

The strategy then goes on to identify the key threats to cyberspace. These threats include nation-state actors, criminal organizations, and hacktivists. These actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their attacks and they are targeting both government and private sector networks.

The People’s Republic of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran continually utilize their own state-affiliated hacking groups that increasingly target the United States private and public infrastructure.

Full unclassified cyber strategy to be revealed soon

While the full unclassified DoD strategy has yet to be revealed, a number of initiatives were identified in the fact sheet.

These initiatives include:

• Investing in new technologies to improve the DoD’s cyber defenses.
• Working with allies and partners to share information and coordinate responses to cyber attacks.
• Educating DoD personnel on how to protect themselves from cyber threats.

The strategy concludes by stating that the DoD is committed to defending the nation in cyberspace. It notes that the DoD will continue to adapt its approach to cyber threats as the threat environment evolves.