The revelation of China-sponsored Typhoon cyberattacks against critical infrastructure signals an escalation of threat facing the United States. The scope of adversarial penetration and nature of these attacks—including malware inserted into thousands of computers—constitutes nothing less than a cyber invasion. Currently, the United States Government (USG) lacks unity of effort and comprehensive resources to deter and defeat such determined adversaries. Countering this cyber invasion requires a transformed national cyber force model, one that seamlessly integrates capabilities and expertise from America’s civilian cyber workforce. To achieve this, the authors recommend five specific actions: 1) establish an Integrated Cyber Provider Corps (ICPC) of cybersecurity and cloud service providers under the National Cyber Director (NCD) to scale active cyber defense for critical infrastructure; 2) create a national lab cyber cohort of experts from research centers and national laboratories to provide technical direction and support for cyber defense and offensive planning; 3) expand cyber capabilities of the National Reserve Force and utilize them more frequently to bridge federal and state coordination gaps; 4) establish a civilian cyber reserve force to leverage private sector expertise and resources to increase domestic cybersecurity capacity; and 5) develop regional resilience districts comprised of private critical infrastructure owners and operators, and their federal, state, and local government agency partners, to ensure continuity and build resilience of critical national defense and commerce hubs.
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