Cyber Under the Next NSC

Rumors about a planned Trump Administration cybersecurity executive order offer signs of hope that many of the cyber policy lessons learned, often the hard way, during the past decade will not be forgotten. Unfortunately, its main thrust appears to be to call for more reviews of and reports on many of the problems we have been reviewing and reporting on for years.

Through the George W. Bush and Barack Obama Administrations, I was fortunate enough to have ringside seats for watching U.S. cybersecurity policy initiatives play out from Congress, inside the White House, and out in the private sector. From those experiences, I can safely say we have studied this problem to death. Now, with light staffing across the National Security Council and federal agencies, more internal government reviews and reports will not improve our cyber defenses.