As Joe Biden vows to reclaim the US’s place on the world stage, the general forecast is that international relations are sailing into calmer waters. However, it is difficult to predict the specific direction that cyber security will take.
On the one hand, a more stable influence at the helm in the US potentially facilitates far greater levels of international cooperation and therefore a more integrated approach than has been evident over the past four years; but on the other hand, with a significant volume of internal issues to handle, the new administration may seek to put its own house in order first.
It should also be noted that while cyber security will undoubtedly be high on the agenda, of the $700bn allowed for national defence spending, only $9bn has been allocated to cyber defence, despite the plausible argument that the depth of feeling unleashed by Donald Trump arguably significantly increased the likelihood of an attack.
The pledge made by the new US government is widely welcomed, but there is much work to be done. Federal government figures suggest that only three in 1,000 cyber crimes are prosecuted, and cyber attacks are widely acknowledged to be the way…
