An Analysis On U.S. Cyber Security Strategy Based On Cyber Offense-Defense Theory

With the development of economic globalization and information revolution,the applications of cyberspace have expanded rapidly.Reliance on cyberspace all over the world is increasing accompanied by growing cybersecurity threats.As the birthplace of the Internet,The United States holds the hegemony of cyberspace,national cybersecurity strategies of the United States of America are important materials for both domestic and foreign scholars.This paper attempts to analyze U.S.cybersecurity strategies from strategic goals,the establishment of cybersecurity forces,the application of strategic means and the core characteristics of the strategy,so as to provide some inspirations and ideas for dealing with the growing cybersecurity threats.Firstly,starting from the dynamic and hierarchical characteristics of cyberspace,this paper demonstrates the applicability of offense-defense theory in cyberspace,and constructs an analytic framework of national cybersecurity strategies that includes the strategic goals,the establishment of cybersecurity forces and the application of strategic means from the perspective of cyber offense-defense balance.A national cybersecurity strategy generally builds national cybersecurity forces by strengthening cyber offense-defense technology research,completing the cybersecurity talent training system,and continuously formulating and updating the coordination mechanism that is compatible with technological development.On this basis,actively defend against general cyber attacks,deter cyber security threats from custom-built control system networks,and promote cooperation between domestic and foreign cyber security forces,so as to pursue the dominance of cyber offense-defense environment and safeguard national cyber security interests.Therefore,a national cybersecurity strategy is often featured by dynamic characteristic,hierarchical characteristic,institutional characteristic and technical characteristic.Secondly,this paper applies the analytic framework of national cybersecurity strategies to the interpretation and implementation effect evaluation of the dynamic evolution process of U.S.cybersecurity strategies.The evolution of the U.S.cybersecurity strategies is closely related to the development of cyber technologies,following the tide of the times.It has gone through four stages including defensive period,offense-defense period,offensive period and radical period,demonstrating the evolutionary disciplines and characteristics of attaching importance to cyber defense,increasing aggressiveness,and deepening the field of cyber security cooperation.After more than two decades of development,the U.S.cyberspace has become more resilient,offensive capabilities have been more skilled,offense-defense technology continues to expand,and the dominance of cyber offense-defense environment is more stable.Thirdly,there are many challenges in the implementation process of the U.S.cybersecurity strategies.First of all,the problem of insufficient cybersecurity talents training and supply has not been solved completely.Then,the development of traditional cyber technologies and the growth of market have encountered bottlenecks,and the U.S.’s dominance of cyber offense-defense environment has been threatened.Subversive cutting-edge technologies such as 5G,artificial intelligence,big data,cloud technology,and quantum technology are on the horizon,causing U.S.offense-defense advantage being challenged.What’s more,domestic political polarization,social division,conflicts within allies such as the EU and Japan in cyberspace make it more difficult to integrate domestic and foreign network information resources.Fourthly,due to the impact of the "black swan" incidents such as COVID-19 pandemic,the politicization trend of the U.S.cybersecurity strategies to serve great power competition will be intensified.The fourth industrial revolution featuring“Industrial Internet” has blurred the boundaries between custom-built control system networks and general information system networks.International cooperation in cyberspace is increasingly influenced by geopolitics,and the influence of the cutting-edge technologies on offense-defense balance continues to increase.Finally,The U.S.cyber deterrence strategy poses a serious threat to our cyber security environment,the general information system network technology ecology dominated by the United States limits China’s cyber defense effectiveness,the US industrial Internet technology ecology weakens China’s custom-built control system networks defense capabilities,and the United States’ cyber political-military alliance curbs the healthy development of our cyber defense empowering technologies.China should strengthen the country’s top-level planning to integrate national cybersecurity forces,building a safe and controllable cyber technology ecology and cyber offense-defense environment to offset the advantages of U.S.cyberattacks,improving the cybersecurity talent training system to improve cyber defense capabilities,and promote the building of a community of shared future in cyberspace,so as to smash the attempt to build a "cyber political-military alliance" and avoid becoming "cyber silos" and "data silos".