National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said the Trump administration will move quickly to implement its newly released national cyber strategy through sector-focused pilot programs, workforce initiatives, and a whole-of-government effort to counter cyber threats.
Speaking at two separate events on March 9, Cairncross said the strategy signals a shift toward a more coordinated federal response to cyber threats while strengthening partnerships with the private sector that operates much of the nation’s critical infrastructure.
“This isn’t a domain that adversaries should be able to operate in, cost-free,” Cairncross said at an event hosted by USTelecom. “We need to impose a consequence. We need to change that risk calculus on the other side of this equation, and so that as a whole of government is what we’re seeking.”
Sector-specific cyber pilot programs
A key early step will be a series of state-based pilot programs aimed at improving cybersecurity protections in critical infrastructure sectors that are often managed at the state and local level.
“One of the ways that we will go about doing that is launching state-specific pilot programs in things like water,” Cairncross said. “We’ll do a program in water in Texas. We’ll do a program in beef in South Dakota. We’ll do rural hospitals.”
The pilots will bring together federal agencies, state governments, and private sector operators to test cybersecurity technologies and approaches that can later be scaled nationally.
“What we are going to do is … go to individual states and identify those sectors so we can work in that state, with the state authorities, with the private sector to find technology … infuse some artificial intelligence into that as well, and scale that defense,” Cairncross said at the Billington State and Local CyberSecurity Summit. “And as we have successes, build off of those.”
Cyber Academy and workforce pipeline
In addition to infrastructure pilots, the administration is also working on a new Cyber Academy initiative aimed at strengthening the cybersecurity workforce pipeline.
Cairncross said the effort would unify existing federal cyber workforce programs while creating pathways to accelerate cybersecurity innovation and deployment.
“We’re looking to put together – and working through the interagency process right now on – a Cyber Academy, a foundry, and an accelerator,” he said.
The national cyber director explained that the academy would not be a brick-and-mortar institution, but it would “knit together under one unified strategy all the existing cyber programs within government.”
The initiative would also include a technology foundry and accelerator designed to bring private capital and innovation into the cybersecurity ecosystem and help move ideas more quickly from concept to deployment.
“It’s a project that we are very excited about,” Cairncross said at the Billington event, adding that there will be “more on that very soon.”
“The president’s been very clear he wants to work on the workforce piece of it. He wants us to find solutions that don’t necessarily require a four-year degree. If we’ve got certificate programs, let’s find the talent and let’s get it to work.”
Whole-of-government collaboration
The broader strategy relies heavily on a whole-of-government approach, Cairncross said, aligning efforts across federal agencies while strengthening collaboration with industry.
“Our critical infrastructure … is defended by the private sector,” he said. “If we aren’t working together … this will not meet with success.”
As part of that approach, Cairncross pointed to a new “interagency cell” focused on combating cybercrime and transnational criminal organizations, which aligns with a cybercrime executive order issued the same day as the strategy.
He said the effort will bring together multiple agencies across government to coordinate responses and more aggressively target cybercriminal operations. Those agencies include the Justice Department, the State Department, the FBI, and the Pentagon.
“The president wants results, and we intend to deliver them,” Cairncross said.