US to ‘Use All Instruments of National Power’ Against Malign Cyber Actors

The Biden administration will use all instruments of national power—up to and including military action—to neutralize cyber threats to the United States.

Ensuring that the United States used a whole-of-government approach to combat cyber threats was necessary to deter adversarial actors, be they nation states or individuals, said acting National Cyber Director Kemba Walden.

“We should be confident that the power won’t go out because a rogue nation or terrorist launched a cyber attack to disrupt our way of life,” Walden said on March 2 during a talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a security-focused think tank.

“When our adversaries threaten our national security and public safety, they need to know that we are going to use all instruments of national power to stop them.”

Walden’s comments outlined a key aspect of the Biden administration’s new National Cyber Strategy, released on March 2.

The strategy shifts U.S. cyber policy towards a more aggressive stance by categorizing cyber threats not only as criminal challenges, but as national security threats, opening them up to an integrated response from the whole of the U.S. government, including the military.

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