National Cyber Director Chris Inglis and Harry Krejsa, acting assistant national cyber director for strategy and research at the White House, said the U.S. should advance a “new social contract for the digital age” by facilitating cybersecurity collaboration between the government and private sector.
Inglis, a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, and Krejsa wrote in a Foreign Affairs guest piece published Monday that the government must treat industry as a key cybersecurity partner and provide comprehensive threat data. They also highlighted the need for the private sector to “prioritize long-term investments in a digital ecosystem that equitably distributes the burden of cyberdefense.”
“Finally, both the public and private sectors must commit to moving toward true collaboration—contributing resources, attention, expertise, and people toward institutions designed to prevent, counter, and recover from cyber-incidents,” they added.
Krejsa and Inglis discussed the need to establish a clear framework for cybersecurity collaboration across industry and government by coming up with new approaches to “address the disproportionate burden” facing end users under the current system.
“Private sector firms will, therefore, need to increasingly prioritize security and resilience in both their hardware manufacturing and software development, even if those priorities require more patience from their occasionally impatient investors,” they wrote.
“The government must also play an active role in easing that transition—setting standards, incentivizing norms, and providing information,” they added.
Inglis and Krejsa also commented on the White House’s May 2021 cybersecurity executive order and the administration’s strategy to advance the adoption of zero trust architecture within the federal government.
