- Major new legislation commits over $1billion to US cyber offensives
- It’s not clear exactly what this refers to, but will most likely target China
- This comes after significant cuts to cybersecurity
President Trump’s landmark ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ legislation includes plans to commit $1billion over the next four years on unspecified “offensive cyber operations”.
Cyber-offensive operations typically include exploiting flaws in software to hack devices or deploy spyware, intelligence gathering, or collecting internet traffic data (among many others).
It’s not clear what tools or software would qualify, but the legislation notes that the funds would go towards enhancing and improving the capabilities of the US Indo-Pacific Command, potentially focusing on the US’s biggest geopolitical rival, China.
Switching focus
This comes despite mass federal layoffs that a former NSA cybersecurity director has warned will have a ‘devastating impact on cybersecurity’ and an unprecedented cut of over $1.2 billion to the federal cybersecurity budget – although some cuts have been partially reversed since a federal court ruled the firing of 130 workers unlawful.
The US government recently announced a pause in cyber-offensive operations against Russia, which highlights the administration’s focus away from eastern Europe and onto China, especially considering the ongoing trade war against the state.
Following this, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reaffirmed its commitment to defending against all cyberthreats, although the continued efforts to undermine and weaken cybersecurity teams capabilities, however counter-productive that may be in protecting US infrastructure.
Senator Ron Wyden, member of the Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed to TechCrunch the Trump administration, “has slashed funding for cybersecurity and government technology and left our country wide open to attack by foreign hackers.”
“Vastly expanding U.S. government hacking is going to invite retaliation — not just against federal agencies, but also rural hospitals, local governments and private companies who don’t stand a chance against nation-state hackers.”