Cybersecurity Signals in the 2025 National Security Strategy
By Patrick Miller
The 2025 National Security Strategy weaves cybersecurity into every major national priority, from resilient infrastructure and protected supply chains to technology leadership and secure global partnerships. This overview highlights the core cyber related themes and what they signal for critical infrastructure and industry.
Overview
The 2025 National Security Strategy quietly reframes cybersecurity as a core component of national power. It does not treat cyber as a standalone topic. Instead, cybersecurity appears throughout the document in the same space as economic security, industrial resilience, and protection of critical infrastructure. This reflects a single underlying theme. Cybersecurity is inseparable from the country’s ability to produce, protect, and sustain critical capabilities.
Cybersecurity as an Integrated Priority
The Strategy positions cybersecurity within four broader objectives.
Resilient national infrastructure across energy, transportation, and essential services
Protection of intellectual property and advanced technology
Secure supply chains and industrial capacity
Countering espionage, influence operations, and foreign interference through digital means
Throughout the document, cybersecurity is treated as a required foundation for economic strength and operational reliability. The Strategy states that no danger or adversary should be able to hold the United States at risk. This includes digital risks to critical infrastructure and connected systems.
Resilient Infrastructure and Critical Systems
The Strategy places sustained emphasis on resilient national infrastructure. Although it does not explicitly list categories of critical infrastructure, the language covers the systems that underpin economic stability and public safety.
For operators of energy systems, transportation networks, and other essential services, this signals continued attention to cyber resilience. The document calls for infrastructure that can withstand both natural and foreign threats and that can prevent or mitigate disruptions to the population and the economy. Cyber threats are included implicitly within that scope.
Technology Leadership and Intellectual Property Protection
The Strategy identifies several technology domains that require both innovation and protection. These include artificial intelligence, quantum, biotechnology, autonomous systems, and the energy systems that support them.
The stated objective is to maintain the United States as the world’s most scientifically and technologically advanced nation. Safeguarding intellectual property from foreign theft is presented as a national priority. From a cybersecurity perspective, these areas depend on secure research environments, protected industrial processes, and reliable digital infrastructure.
Supply Chain and Industrial Base Security
Supply chain integrity is a recurring focus. The Strategy emphasizes:
Reliable access to critical materials
Secure movement of goods
Protection against dependencies on foreign sources for sensitive or high value components
Revitalization of the defense industrial base
The intelligence community is directed to monitor key supply chains and technological developments to identify vulnerabilities. Cyber risks to these supply chains fall under this directive and reinforce the need for secure vendor ecosystems and consistent visibility into digital dependencies.
Information Operations and Digital Influence
Although not framed explicitly as a cyber topic, the Strategy highlights several activities that are typically executed through digital platforms. These include influence operations, propaganda, and efforts by foreign actors to steer public discourse.
The document states that the United States intends to resist foreign interference that seeks to censor speech, manipulate decision making, or draw the country into foreign disputes. These concerns overlap with cybersecurity, particularly in areas involving platform integrity, identity verification, and protection of public information channels.
Cybersecurity in Regional Strategies
Western Hemisphere
The Strategy identifies hidden costs in certain foreign infrastructure offerings. These include espionage, cybersecurity risks, and debt traps. As a response, the Strategy calls for hardening cyber communications networks in the region and ensuring that these networks can take full advantage of American encryption and security technologies.
This is one of the most direct cybersecurity references in the entire document.
Indo-Pacific and China
This section contains the highest concentration of cyber relevant content. Key priorities include:
Stopping intellectual property theft and industrial espionage
Protecting supply chains for critical materials and advanced technologies
Countering influence operations and digital propaganda
Enhancing the security and resilience of technology sectors
The Strategy describes an operating model that relies on close relationships between the federal government and the American private sector. These relationships support continuous monitoring, attribution, and response to threats targeting networks and critical infrastructure. The text makes clear that these activities span both defensive and offensive cyber operations.
Europe
In Europe, the Strategy encourages partners to act against technological theft, cyber espionage, and hostile economic practices. Cybersecurity is presented here as a component of economic and industrial security.
Public and Private Sector Collaboration
One of the most important themes is the link between the federal government and private sector operators. The Strategy directs:
Persistent monitoring of threats to U.S. networks
Real time discovery, attribution, and response to those threats
Integration of private sector operators into national situational awareness
Use of cyber capabilities for both defense and targeted offensive actions
For critical infrastructure operators, this signals continued emphasis on transparent information sharing, coordinated defense, and improved network visibility.
Implications for Critical Infrastructure and Technology Sectors
Critical Infrastructure Operators
The Strategy reinforces expectations around:
Increased resilience of operational systems
Secure communications and monitoring across energy, transportation, and essential services
Participation in coordinated threat detection activities with federal partners
Technology Developers and Manufacturers
Organizations in advanced technology and manufacturing sectors should anticipate:
Stronger scrutiny of cyber risks in supply chains
Continued enforcement of intellectual property protection
Alignment between cybersecurity practices and broader industrial policy initiatives
Allies and Partners
The Strategy indicates expanded U.S. engagement on:
Hardening communication networks
Improving regional cyber capacity
Countering espionage and influence activities
Securing high technology sectors and supply chains
Closing Perspective
The 2025 National Security Strategy is not a cyber centric document, but cybersecurity is embedded throughout nearly every major theme. Cybersecurity aligns directly with economic strength, industrial resilience, technology leadership, and the protection of critical infrastructure.
The result is a strategic posture where cyber is not treated as a standalone risk domain. It is positioned as a core requirement for national stability, reliable supply chains, secure technology ecosystems, and international cooperation.
