With the advent of the Internet and explosion of inter connectivity in the age of information systems, we’ve seen a great expansion of attack surfaces. As such, national states and criminal organizations has sought to undermine and steal from it. As of 2021, damages incurred by cyber crime were thought to exceed $6 trillion. In addition, critical infrastructure remains an area of great importance which needs to be focused on, particularly in improving its cyber resilience against potential and future attacks.
The mission of the Department of Homeland Security is focused on four goals: Securing federal networks, strengthening the security of critical infrastructure, countering and analyzing future cybersecurity risks, and combating cyber crime. They achieve these goals through inter-collaboration with government agencies, civilian companies, public sectors and infrastructure owners. Some of the main focus includes assessing risks, developing capabilities to counter, detect, and remediate those risks, increasing resilience in the face of attacks, and developing policies + framework to support the cyber missions.
There is an emphasize on having a national risk management approach to assess and develop plans for threats. DHS act as an active support role in helping ensure that agencies and public + private entities are able to set up their cyber capabilities against constantly-changing adversaries and that proper strategies are put in place to minimize potential impact.
