US Releases New Strategy to Enhance Cybersecurity Defenses and Suppress Threats from Russia and China

JAKARTA -The White House on Thursday 2 March announced a new cybersecurity strategy as the latest effort by the United States government to strengthen cybersecurity amid increasing cases of hacking and digital crimes targeting the country.

The strategy, which is intended to guide future policies, encourages tighter regulation of existing cybersecurity practices across industries and increases collaboration between the government and the private sector. This comes after a series of hacking incidents by domestic and foreign actors against the United States and amid the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, where cyber warfare is a major concern.

This strategy positions China and Russia as the most prominent cybersecurity threats to the United States. In calls with reporters, a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity said part of the new strategy was aimed at curbing Russian hackers. "Russia serves as a haven for cybercriminals, and ransomware is the dominant problem we face today", the official said, as quoted by Reuters.

Ransomware attacks, in which groups of cybercriminals take control of a target's system and demand ransom payments, are among the most common types of cyberattacks and have impacted various industries in recent years.

"The criminal justice system will not be able to deal with this problem alone - we will have to look at other elements of national power", the official added. "So, we hope that Russia understands the consequences of malicious activity in cyberspace, and will continue to suppress it."

The strategy encourages the formation of coalitions with foreign partners. "This is to put pressure on Russia and other bad actors to change their behaviour", another US official said in the same call.

"We think we've seen some success in maintaining the coalition over the past year", the official added.

Among other things, the strategy calls for raising standards of patching security holes in computer systems and implementing an executive order that will require cloud companies to verify the identities of foreign customers.