Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, and Michael Sulmeyer, senior adviser to the commander of Cybercom, wrote in an article published Tuesday on the Foreign Affairs magazine that aside from implementing proactive defense measures, the command needs to advance the “defend forward” strategy through persistent management.
“This doctrine of persistent engagement reflects the fact that one-off cyber operations are unlikely to defeat adversaries. Instead, U.S. forces must compete with adversaries on a recurring basis, making it far more difficult for them to advance their goals over time,” they wrote.
Gen. Nakasone, who also serves as director of the National Security Agency (NSA), and Sulmeyer wrote that persistent engagement highlights the need for Cybercom to support its government partners by sharing warnings and indications and an example of that is the “9-line” incident reporting standard supporting National Guard units.
They also discussed Cybercom’s partnership with NSA, adoption of the zero trust approach and how it works with the private sector through the DreamPort facility.
