Global interconnectedness through cyberspace is an irreversible and all-encompassing fact of life that presents a multitude of benefits, as well as risks. The degree to which cyberspace and its vulnerabilities have permeated our lives is readily on display at various hacker conferences where white-hat hackers patiently try to gain root access to sample medical devices normally used in hospitals, industry experts discuss the process of remediating cyber vulnerabilities in domestic election infrastructure while other presenters talk about the current market for “zero days,” and experts explain dynamic evolution of the cyber insurance market. As our lives are on a seemingly irreversible glide path to becoming more interconnected, the likelihood of malicious foreign and domestic behavior in cyberspace similarly increases.
The United States — its public and private sectors — finds itself at a crossroads: we must improve our understanding of elusive, ever-changing threats, while simultaneously remaining agile in our capability to identify and respond to them. Such an approach requires the means to disseminate information rapidly to reduce the impact and increase timely awareness of these events. This paper lays out how the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) can build on this mission by briefly examining the critical intelligence community integration role it was assigned when it was originally formed, reviewing the Cyberspace Solarium Commission’s recommendations for the US government, and providing ideas for and examples of how ODNI, with other agencies, can effectively realize these recommendations.
Read more at the Modern War Institute at West Point
