National Cybersecurity Strategy and Policy Analysis

The assignment discusses the importance of cybersecurity in national security strategies. It highlights the evolution of the National Cybersecurity Strategy from 2003 to 2017, which focuses on identifying and responding to cyber threats. The strategy emphasizes the need for a thorough approach to cybersecurity to protect American interests and citizens' data. The assignment also touches upon the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, which aims to facilitate information sharing between private and public sectors to combat cyber threats. It discusses the pros and cons of this act, including the importance of voluntary participation, transparency, and coordination in information sharing.

Assignment
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Cybersecurity strategy, law and policy
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Scenario 1
Comment
Cybersecurity is one of the major aspects for any country or company because it has much
more to deal with the data that too confidential and bulk data of any company or individual.
However for any company or private/public partnership there is a need of some security
strategy which can help to do hassle free business throughout the world.
In national cybersecurity strategy they have focused more to identify the depth of the
threaku7t so that the help desk team can recover it in least possible time. It is all about the
things which government can do to recover the system from any type of failure. In this
document cyberspace has been discussed as the critical space which needs to be dealt with
attention so that any issue could not affect the system. It is about thorough treatment on the
cybersecurity so that they can easily save the data from being lost or misused and this has
been considered as the national security standard.
National security strategy 2017 has been prepared on the basis of four pillars and the rules
besides it. These four pillars are designed such that it can cover around six regions across
different part of the world cited from Sulmeyer, M. (2017). These four pillars are defined as,
1. It should promote American prosperity.
2. It should be able to preserve peace through the strength
3. It should obey advance American influence
4. The most important pillar deals about protecting the American homeland, American
people and American way of life.
When we go depth about the pillars we can understand its meaning accordingly. The last
pillar tells about it should be able to keep America safe in this cyber era where most of the
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public and private industry are dependent on cyberspace and cybersecurity. The reason
behind defining this NSS is that it could be able to design a world of strong, independent and
sovereign nation where the citizen of country are free to dream and design their culture. The
reason of discussing these facts before commenting on NSS 2017 is that it can clearly justify
the facts in easy way. The NSS 2017 is sufficient enough to protect the assets of United space
in terms of cybersecurity moreover there is no need to design a separate security strategy for
the US. In comparison the NSS cyberspace 2003 to 2017 it should add some more highlights
with the current pillars to design a more secure strategy for the country.
Pros
There is major amendment from previous security network to this is that there is evolution in
the area where this act follows to secure the information. Previous act was only limited to
critical infrastructure and federal network but current act secure six important regions which
are banking and finance, national security, power and energy, safety and health, as well as
transportation and communication. These six important regions covers a wide range of
government and private organization and that’s why there is no need to establish a separate
strategy for the US.
Cons
However there is a breakdown in the above security strategy where the cybersecurity act
should be focused in defeating malicious activity within the network without delivering to the
destination if possible. There should be good cybersecurity between business and users so as
to establish the business with repute which cannot be trickled easily.
Scenario 2
Comment
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The cyber security act 2015 was signed by Obama on 18th Dec 2015 which deals about the
mechanism for sharing cyber security information amongst private sector and the federal
government entities. This act generally makes guidelines of sharing information as well type
of data which can be collected from the citizen of country. It is about confidential sharing of
information by keeping focus on cyber threats between private and federal government
entities. It design the framework for safe and confidential sharing of information but it is
effective only after DHS – department of homeland security and secretary passes written
guidelines within 90 days after introduction of this act.
According to this cybersecurity Act 2015 the security can be balanced by voluntary
participation said in The Cybersecurity Act of 2015: A Brief Overview and What’s Next.
(2016).. According to this prohibition on sharing information is applied if it is condition
based or if it is designed for government benefits. This makes genuine partnership between
private and public partnership. However there is one situation based contract where
participation is required according to the function of changing industry standard and
contracts. As per the response required based on the situation that there should be voluntary
participation so if the company standard or work culture changes there can be conditional
modification in the contract.
Moreover another important aspect of cybersecurity act 2015 there should be coordination
between information sharing between public and private organization. According to this act
there is a portal established by DHS and NCCIC- National cybersecurity and communication
integration center, which can be able to facilitate the private and public information sharing
of cyber threat information which plays important role in evaluating the risk indicators and
cyber threat information. However its role also cannot be transferred to other entities outside
the DHS.
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Pros
So as per the scenario the DHS NCCI should share information only which cannot be used
for any type of organizational or personal benefits. When there is transparent sharing of data
then the private organization should establish an extra layer for security because according to
this act if they are involved in voluntary participation they cannot deny their presence. To
secure private networks company can make a strategy plan to secure their networks, in which
they can include types of threats, framework for predictable threats as well as some details
and symptoms of unpredictable threats so that they can establish a rescue team. Rescue team
and disaster recovery team can be able to cope up with any type of challenges and for that
they need skilled person in that team. Moreover there should be clear picture in front of their
workers about do’s and don’ts so that crossing that limit could be identified and penalized as
soon as any suspicious activity detected.
Cons
In regard to cybersecurity act for 2018 government are not supposed to collect private
information from citizen that is correct but the act should be amended or updated such that
any public-private partnership who are involved in direct collection of data do not make false
use or misuse of confidential information of citizens.
References
Sulmeyer, M. (2017). Cybersecurity in the 2017 National Security Strategy. Retrieved from
https://www.lawfareblog.com/cybersecurity-2017-national-security-strategy
The Cybersecurity Act of 2015: A Brief Overview and What’s Next. (2016). Retrieved from
http://www.smsm.com/blogs-litigationblog,the-cybersecurity-act-of-2015-a-brief-overview-
and-what-s-next
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