BlackBerry Welcomes the White House Cybersecurity Strategy
The White House unveiled a National Cybersecurity Strategy this week to help secure the full benefits of a safe and secure digital ecosystem. As a global leader in AI-driven cybersecurity and secure IoT software, BlackBerry welcomes this strategy and the focus it brings on building a more secure and resilient future for all of us.
“Our rapidly evolving world demands a more intentional, more coordinated, and more well-resourced approach to cyber defense,” the strategy says. It also emphasizes the need to “invest in proactive measures to prevent or mitigate the effects of cyber incidents.” And we agree this is important.
Five Pillars of the U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy
The new strategy seeks to build and enhance collaboration around five pillars, which include:
1. Defend Critical Infrastructure — This includes implementing effective cybersecurity practices and tools across critical infrastructure sectors, harmonizing regulations to reduce the burden of compliance, rapidly enabling public-private collaboration, defending and modernizing federal networks, and updating federal incident response policy.
2. Disrupt and Dismantle Threat Actors — Actions here involve strategically employing all tools of national power to disrupt adversaries; engaging the private sector in disruption activities through scalable mechanisms; and addressing the ransomware threat through a comprehensive federal approach, in lockstep with international partners.
3. Shape Market Forces to Drive Security and Resilience — This includes promoting privacy and the security of personal data, improving IoT cybersecurity, shifting liability for software products and services to promote secure development practices, and ensuring that federal grant programs promote investments in new infrastructure that is secure and resilient.
4. Invest in a Resilient Future — Stated goals include reducing systemic technical vulnerabilities in the foundation of the internet and across the digital ecosystem, while making it more resilient against transnational digital repression; prioritizing cybersecurity R&D for next-generation technologies such as artificial intelligence, postquantum encryption, and digital identity solutions; building cybersecurity proactively into clean energy infrastructure; and developing a diverse and robust national cyber workforce
5. Forge International Partnerships to Pursue Shared Goals — This means leveraging international coalitions and partnerships to counter threats to the digital ecosystem; increasing the capacity of partners to defend themselves against cyber threats, both in peacetime and in crisis; and working with our allies and partners to make secure, reliable, and trustworthy global supply chains for information and communications technology, as well as operational technology (OT) products and services.
Cybersecurity Is Crucial to Economic and National Security
Technology is now inextricably linked to nearly everything we do, both as individuals and as organizations.
We agree with the National Cybersecurity Strategy that, “Cybersecurity is essential to the basic functioning of our economy, the operation of our critical infrastructure, the strength of our democracy and democratic institutions, the privacy of our data and communications, and national defense.”
We see the most effective approach to proactive cyber defense as one that requires mature AI-based solutions that prevent zero-day malware attacks. And BlackBerry customers already know this approach is not only achievable, but readily available via our portfolio of Cylance® AI-powered security solutions.
For example, in a recent three-month period, BlackBerry® endpoint security solutions powered by Cylance AI stopped more than 1.7 million malware-based cyberattacks. These threats included 133,695 unique malware samples, which translates to an average of 1,485 novel malware samples per day, and 62 samples per hour. In other words, we blocked an average of roughly one new malware sample per minute.
You can find further details in the recent BlackBerry Global Threat Intelligence Report.
Carrying Out the National Cybersecurity Strategy
The new National Cybersecurity Strategy does an excellent job of capturing why the timing for the strategy is so crucial:
“The world is entering a new phase of deepening digital dependencies. Driven by emerging technologies and ever more complex and interdependent systems, dramatic shifts in the coming decade will unlock new possibilities for human flourishing and prosperity while also multiplying the systemic risks posed by insecure systems.”
We couldn’t agree more. We look forward to working closely with the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD), the U.S. Congress, and industry, to strengthen our nation’s cyber resilience in the face of today’s complex cyber threats.
