The US Department of Defense unveiled a new cyber strategy aimed at fighting China and Russia

The US Department of Defense (DoD) published summary of its new cyber strategy, which takes into account the lessons of the conflict in Ukraine and builds on the Defend Forward policy adopted in the previous 2018 version.

The presentation of the updated DoD Cyber ​​Strategy to Congress came after the publication in March of the Biden administration’s National Cyber ​​Strategy.

According to DoD officials, the new strategy is “based on real experience” and aims to “actively stop malicious cyber activity before it can affect the United States.” The full version of the document was given to lawmakers this week in classified form, and the unclassified version will be published this summer.

Particular attention in the strategy is paid to the use of cyber capabilities in modern realities. The 2018 strategy shifted the Pentagon from a reactive stance to a “Defend Forward” policy, which involves countering attackers as close to the source of the threat as possible.

This policy is implemented by the US Cyber ​​Command, the main organization for conducting cyber warfare. Its task is a “permanent presence” in cyberspace, where US operators are constantly in contact with adversaries.

The document also lists the top threats to the US in cyberspace—China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran—and four areas of action to deal with them and other adversaries in cyberspace:

1. First – protecting the country by conducting campaigns “in and through cyberspace” in order to obtain information about hackers and stop their activities;
2. Second — supporting allies in building up their cyber capabilities and expanding avenues for cooperation, including through Cyber ​​Command missions to search for threats;
3. Third — investing in their own IT systems, as well as in their cyber operators;
4. fourth — working to contain conflict where possible and secure victory where needed.

The new US cyber strategy reflects the growing importance of cyberspace in the modern world and shows Washington’s readiness to actively counter its adversaries in this area. However, the new strategy also poses a number of challenges for the Pentagon to secure its networks and systems, as well as to cooperate with allies and partners. How the new strategy will be implemented and how other cyberpowers will react to it are questions that do not yet have unambiguous answers.