The White House will not be content to "play defence" on the issue of cyber security, one of US President Donald Trump’s leading advisers said.
Sean Cairncross, the Trump administration's national cyber director, said the White House wanted to make it clear there would be repercussions for any sophisticated cyber attack launched against US digital infrastructure.
Mr Cairncross said the same would apply to less sophisticated attacks. Far too often the cyber security community has blamed the victim, he added.
"If you're whacked by a foreign adversary, the US should not turn around and blame those who were cyber attacked," he said.
Mr Cairncross was speaking at the Billington State and Local CyberSecurity Summit in Washington. The three-day exhibition will feature speakers from the FBI, White House, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
His appearance comes days after Mr Trump announced the much-anticipated "Cyber Strategy for America".
"It calls for unprecedented co-ordination across government and the private sector to invest in the best technologies and continue world-class innovation, and to make the most of America’s cyber capabilities for both offensive and defensive missions," a White House news release read.
Mr Cairncross said that most importantly, the policy will seek to shape adversary behaviour in cyber security. "It's not just all defence," he said.
The White House's cyber strategy, announced on Friday, promised to "unleash the private sector by creating incentives to identify and disrupt adversary networks and scale our national capabilities".
That echoes legislation introduced in August by Republican Representative David Schweikert, which has been likened to a modern-day digital privateer system.
Meanwhile, concerns over possible attacks on US digital infrastructure have greatly increased since February 28 when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
Several weeks before the strikes on Iran, cyber security company Acronis warned that its experts had discovered a new malware campaign aimed at supporters of protests throughout the country.
Months before, FBI assistant director Brett Leatherman said that he was seeing increased attack attempts against US digital infrastructure from Iran, adding that any successful cyber attack affecting critical technology systems would probably be considered an act of war.
In its 2025 digital defence report, Microsoft also warned about cyber crime originating from Iran.
“The volume of Iranian state-linked cyber activity remains consistently high,” the report read. “Iran’s intelligence services continue to focus heavily on regional adversaries, conducting long-term espionage against critical infrastructure."
It also noted that Tehran's cyber hackers most frequently went for Israel, the US and the UAE to exploit any vulnerabilities. Inside Iran, internet access for 99 per cent of the country has been cut off by the government, according to monitors.
"Iran's internet blackout has entered its 10th day with connectivity at 1 per cent of ordinary levels after the 216th hour," NetBlocks posted on X. "As regional hostilities intensify, some 90 million Iranians are silenced and cut off from the global internet under a state-imposed shutdown."
The heightened awareness stemming from current global geopolitical tension was not lost on cyber security conference organisers on Monday.
On Monday, Billington president Troy Schneider said: "State and local government face escalating cyber risks," adding that threats from nation states are gaining more prominence. "This is an important inflection point for public sector cyber security."
