Tyler Cross
Published on: February 13, 2024

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a report on Monday outlining its goals with the upcoming 2024 Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDR).

This comes amidst criticism aimed at the JCDR for being ineffective against rising threat levels and lack of technical expertise. While this isn’t the first time these critics have been brought up, there is growing concern about the JCDR being bogged down by oppressive bureaucracy. Lately, researchers have been less active, which could pose a national security risk.

To counter the concerns, CISA has released three main goals for the JCDR to accomplish in 2024.

• Raise baseline defenses for the owners and operators of critical infrastructure.
• Protecting the nation against advanced persistent threat operations (APTs).
• Staying ahead of new risks and analyzing potential threats.

While these goals are certainly great on paper, only time will tell if the agency can implement changes quickly enough. In a recent House meeting, Robert M. Lee, CEO of Dragos, stated that CISA is suffering from growing pains and that while CISA has a good plan, its execution tends to be lacking. Others have gone as far as calling the JCDR “dead.”

But if the JCDR can accomplish its 2024 goals, it would mean a better baseline security for the US’s most important national infrastructure.

“These priorities will further expand the breadth and depth of our partnership to tackle more challenging, forward-leaning cyber risks that could evolve in the future, not just the immediate risks,” said Clayton Romans, associate director at CISA in a blog post. “To be clear, JCDC in this context is not a specific team or organization; it represents the collective group of industry and government partners drawn together to drive positive change for our nation’s cybersecurity.”

Romans went on to address the public’s concerns.

“Even as we urgently work to help organizations implement the most effective cybersecurity measures, we know that scalable change requires a fundamental shift in how technology is designed, built, and maintained,” he said.