Doug Kelly: U.S.’s annual threat assessment points to American tech companies as allies, not adversaries

By Doug Kelly

Last month the U.S. Office of National Intelligence released its Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community. The opening frames that the “United States and its allies will face an increasingly complex and interconnected global security environment marked by the growing specter of great power competition and conflict.”

Most striking throughout the assessment, however, is a theme that ladders up to a dire warning of newly emerging transitional challenges posing a direct threat to the United States. Specifically, these new threats are rooted in a much greater adoption of disruptive technologies by our adversaries which will interact in complex and cascading ways in all aspects of our economic and national security, now holistically proliferated and permeated by technology.

The Biden administration also called this out as a growing threat in May of last year when President Biden singed an executive order to improve and bolster our nation’s insufficient cybersecurity infrastructure to prepare for increasingly sophisticated malicious cyberattacks. In March, the Biden administration validated those concerns by warning Americans about evolving intelligence that points to Russia exploring options to engage in malicious cyberattacks against the United States. The administration also urged U.S. organizations to harden cyberdefenses to prepare for Russian cyberattacks.

The administration’s recent warnings about Russia and the ATA’s framing of new and more robust cyberthreats on American infrastructure and sovereignty by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea underscore that the U.S. is in a battle between autocratic and democratic values, unprecedented in its technological nature. They also point directly to one of our country’s most effective and powerful solutions to tackle these threats – American technology companies bolstering our cybersecurity infrastructure.

The threat and cost of cyberattacks have increased significantly as U.S. companies have digitized processes, moved to the cloud, and maintained a remote workforce during a simultaneous global pandemic and cybersecurity labor shortage. In service of these companies, U.S. tech company efforts to maintain and sustain ample cybersecurity measures have also increased. They have continually added new and adaptive protections and security services into the products that these companies use, relative to growing and evolving threats.

Without these measures, Americans from Washington state to Washington, D.C., would feel direct effects of a digital attack that could span surges in gas prices, an increased strain on the food, pharmacy, energy, transportation, and broader supply chains, disrupted local and national health care systems, personal economic instability, and diminished confidence in elections through Russian disinformation cyberattacks.

The state of Washington fully understands the critical benefits America’s tech companies provide our public and private sector and that they are the primary driver of America’s cybersecurity infrastructure. As such, Washington has long been a leader in technical innovations related to defense, software, and the Internet. Indeed, tech companies now make up the backbone of Washington’s economy. As a result, many Washington companies are already prepared for these threats.

In early 2021, National Security Director Avril Haines spoke at her Senate confirmation hearing about the critical need for the intelligence community to strengthen its partnerships with social media providers and private sector technology companies. She referenced these partnerships as drivers of greater awareness of foreign threat actors’ intentions to interfere with or influence U.S. policy.

Policymakers in Congress should follow Director Haines’ lead and partner with leaders in the digital economy instead of pursuing short-sighted legislation that would restrict product development, limit adoption of the latest cybersecurity innovations, and require collaboration with companies that have clear ties to China and other adversaries.

The reality is, America’s technological advantage is driven by American tech companies and that advantage translates to geopolitical power. The bottom line, to protect our national and economic security from rising cyberthreats, America’s technology industry and subsequent domestic innovation ecosystem need to be stronger and more innovative than ever before. Now is the time for lawmakers to double-down in support of U.S. tech innovation, not dismantle our tech companies through anti-innovation legislation that will hand America’s technical advantage to our authoritarian adversaries.

Doug Kelly, of Columbus, Ohio, serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the American Edge Project, a coalition dedicated to the proposition that American innovators are an essential part of U.S. economic health, national security, and individual freedoms. As CEO of the American Edge Project (AEP), Kelly is committed to protecting America’s tech innovation from meeting the same fate. He understands that America’s most innovative companies help drive our economy, protect our national security, and promote free-speech values abroad.