On April 17, 2018, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen delivered a keynote address at the RSA Conference. A copy of her prepared remarks is available here. Secretary Nielsen’s remarks highlighted efforts by DHS to address the evolving cybersecurity threats to our country’s critical infrastructure.
Secretary Nielsen set the stage by describing the realities of the cyber threat landscape: 2017 was a landmark year in terms of cyberattack volume, with nearly half of all Americans having their sensitive personal information exposed online and ransomware attacks spreading to more than 150 countries. The Secretary stated that cybercrime damages are estimated to reach $6 trillion annually[1] by 2021, and suggested that the emergence of internet-connected devices could make us even more vulnerable to cyberattacks.
To address evolving cyber threats and more sophisticated threat actors, Secretary Nielsen posited a five part approach that DHS is taking to support a “more forward-leaning posture” in the cybersecurity area. Those five approaches are summarized below: