CISA Unveils Cybersecurity Strategic Plan for FY2024-2026

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has introduced its comprehensive Cybersecurity Strategic Plan for the fiscal years 2024-2026, outlining a new vision for fortified cybersecurity that emphasizes collaboration, innovation, and accountability. The plan is aligned with the National Cybersecurity Strategy and embedded within CISA's 2023-2025 Strategic Plan, establishing a roadmap for the agency to navigate towards a future marked by infrequent cyber intrusions, bolstered organizational security and resilience, and technology products designed and default-secured for safety.

The Cybersecurity Strategic Plan centers on three enduring goals aimed at orchestrating a robust defense against evolving cyber threats:

1. Address Immediate Threats: CISA aims to heighten the challenge faced by adversaries targeting American and allied networks. Collaborative efforts with partners will be geared towards enhancing visibility into intrusion campaigns, disrupting threat actor activities, swiftly expelling adversaries following breaches, and expediting the remediation of vulnerabilities exploited by assailants.
2. Harden the Terrain: The plan advocates for the widespread adoption of robust security and resilience practices that tangibly reduce the likelihood of debilitating cyber intrusions. CISA intends to offer actionable guidance to organizations, enabling prioritization of effective security investments and facilitating scalable assessments to evaluate progress within organizations, critical infrastructure sectors, and the nation.
3. Drive Security at Scale: CISA envisions cybersecurity to be a paramount safety concern and urges technology providers to integrate security into products throughout their lifecycle. This goal encompasses shipping products with secure defaults and fostering radical transparency in security practices, thereby enhancing user awareness of associated risks.

Importantly, the Strategic Plan underscores its commitment to outcome-based measures of effectiveness, ensuring that CISA's initiatives yield quantifiable results in the ongoing fight against cybersecurity risks.

CISA acknowledges that the journey to enhanced cybersecurity is a collective endeavor necessitating collaboration between government entities, industries, technology providers, global cyber defenders, individual citizens, and other stakeholders. The plan further aligns with the 2023 U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy, forging a path towards a future where collaboration is the norm, innovation in defense outpaces malicious intent, and the burden of cybersecurity is equitably distributed.

CISA's recognition of the high stakes is palpable, as the nation's reliance on interconnected technologies continues to deepen. Acknowledging the pervasiveness of technology in daily life, CISA emphasizes the need for transformative changes, such as designing and developing products with heightened security controls and promptly detecting and mitigating adversarial actions.

As CISA embarks on the journey delineated in its Cybersecurity Strategic Plan, its focus on collaborative efforts, innovative solutions, and measurable progress underscores a commitment to ensuring a secure cyber future for the nation.