Title: The Growing Need for Cyber Diplomacy

Description: The U.S. and its allies face growing cyber threats from
adversaries and individuals looking to undermine our democracies,
institutions, and economies. These include threats from nations like
China and Russia. In a new report, we looked at recent diplomatic
efforts like this to advance U.S. cyber diplomacy. GAO's Latesha
Love-Grayer tells us more.

Related GAO Work: GAO-24-105563, Cyber Diplomacy: State's Efforts Aim to
Support U.S. Interests and Elevate Priorities

Released: January 2024

{Music}

[Latesha Love-Grayer:] The U.S. is engaged in cyber diplomacy, and it's
increasingly important that we're at the forefront of advancing U.S.
interests in cyberspace.

[Holly Hobbs:] Hi, and welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report. Your source for
fact-based, nonpartisan news and information from the U.S. Government
Accountability Office. I'm your host, Holly Hobbs. The U.S. and its
allies face growing cyber threats from adversaries and individuals
looking to undermine our democracies, institutions, and economies. These
include threats from nations like China and Russia. And in response, in
April of 2022, the Department of State created a new Bureau of
Cybersecurity and Digital Policy. In a new report, we looked at recent
diplomatic efforts, like this, to advance U.S. cyber diplomacy. Joining
us to talk about this report is GAO's Latesha Love-Grayer, an expert on
international cyber issues. Thanks for joining us.

[Latesha Love-Grayer:] Thank you for having me.

[Holly Hobbs:] So, Latesha, when I think of cyber threats against the
U.S., I guess I--and maybe many Americans--see this as a national defense
issue and maybe not a diplomatic one. How does cybersecurity fit into
U.S. diplomatic efforts and who leads those efforts?

[Latesha Love-Grayer:] That's a great question. At its heart, diplomacy
is simply managing Americans' relationships with other foreign
governments, with other international organizations, with people from
other countries. And those relationships are becoming more and more
important in a society where we are relying more on cyberspace and
digital policy for things like international trade and commerce, and
communication and critical infrastructure. There are great opportunities
for international collaboration in these spaces to promote the values
that are important to the U.S. At the same time, there are several
challenges that face the U.S. and all of its allies in cyberspace. For
example, we saw that with Russia's attack on the critical infrastructure
of Ukraine. There's threats to our citizens' everyday lives as they're
using cyberspace and digital technology and from actors who are stealing
identities. There's even threats to our democracy, and that comes in the
form of misinformation. And finally, there's threats to our commerce and
to our economies as hackers try to steal ideas and technology and
secrets from companies. And there's no one country that can address them
alone. This is going to require collaboration across countries
internationally. And the State Department leads that. And they do so
with the support of many other federal agencies.

[Holly Hobbs:] So what are some of the tools being used to promote U.S.
cyber priorities or to secure our cyberspace?

[Latesha Love-Grayer:] Well, we found that the U.S., and particularly,
the State Department, is advancing U.S. interests in cyberspace using
two tools. First, the diplomatic activities and then also their foreign
assistance. And usually, these types of diplomatic activities are used
to establish a common consensus and understanding around cyber norms and
technical standards, and to build international consensus on cyber
objectives and policies. A great example of that is the work that the
U.S. has done, and State Department led it, in working with Denmark. In
Denmark, we worked to advance the Copenhagen pledge on tech for
democracy. This pledge was intended to really counter authoritarian
repression of free speech and digital policy, and to advance digital
freedom. And that's really important to the U.S. because we believe and
using cyberspace to advance freedoms. And that's a concept that actually
there's a lot of controversy and not necessarily consensus with regard
to what should happen across the world. The other tool that the State
Department uses is its foreign assistance, and that's simply the
activities that it uses U.S. funds to fund other organizations, capacity
building, they use training and technical assistance and other types of
support. 

[Holly Hobbs:] As we teased in the podcast intro, the State Department
has recently established a new Bureau for Cyberspace and Digital Policy.
Has that improved State's efforts? And what has it allowed State to do
that it couldn't before?

[Latesha Love-Grayer:] Yes, you're right. The State Department did just
start this a new initiative. And the U.S. also appointed an ambassador
at-large to lead this bureau. And the efforts to build this bureau and
to combine these efforts under one umbrella was really to help
strategically focus U.S. efforts on cyber diplomacy and also to elevate
cyber priorities. Previously, several entities within State were engaged
in activities that we might consider as falling under cyber diplomacy.
So this new change has better positioned the State Department to elevate
cyber issues. For example, CDP as ambassador is now working with the
very high-level officials from other countries to talk through cyber
issues and to raise the U.S. profile and discussing cyber issues
globally. 

{MUSIC}

[Holly Hobbs:] Latesha just told us that while cyber threats are
increasing, the U.S has taken some steps in recent years to bolster its
use of diplomacy to strengthen our national cybersecurity, as well as
help our foreign allies. So, Latesha, some of these cyber efforts are
fairly new and we're going to keep looking at them. But what challenges
have we seen that need to be addressed to improve the State Department's
efforts?

[Latesha Love-Grayer:] Yes, you're right. There have been some steps in
the right direction by the State Department. But there are several
challenges that still remain. And I'll just name the three that I think
really are critical. The first is the definition of cyber diplomacy.
Earlier in our conversation, you heard me define diplomacy and talk
about how that relates to cyberspace. But there is no single,
universally agreed upon definition of cyber diplomacy. And what that
means is that different organizations may interpret what falls under the
umbrella of cyber diplomacy differently. And that can cause challenges
when the State Department is intending to work with its partners to
align resources and to really focus on common goals and strategic
outcomes in a way that is comparable with another organization. 

The second is related in some ways. It's really about clarifying the
roles and the responsibilities of the Bureau that was just stood up and
U.S. federal partners who also engage in activities that can support
cyber diplomacy. So you have agencies like the Departments of Homeland
Security and Defense, and the U.S. Agency for International Development,
and Commerce that are all involved in activities that can be seen as
supporting cyber diplomacy. Understanding their roles and how they
differ from what the State Department is doing is really important. But
it is a challenge that they will continue to face. 

And finally, maybe the most important and certainly the most challenging
is just capacity. Having the right people with the right skills to
advance our goals in cyber diplomacy is a big challenge. Having someone
who understands both technical issues and cybersecurity and other cyber
issues and diplomacy is even more challenging. As we look forward
towards the long-term implementation of cyber diplomacy initiatives, it
will be incumbent upon CDP and the State Department to be able to build
relationships with academia, the private sector and others to cultivate
that talent and to bring them into that agency.

[Holly Hobbs:] And last question, what's the bottom line of this report?

[Latesha Love-Grayer:] I think the bottom line here is that the U.S. is
engaged in cyber diplomacy. It's increasingly important that we're at
the forefront of advancing U.S. interests in cyberspace. The U.S. and in
particular the State Department, has taken several steps to try and
elevate this as a foreign policy issue. And those steps are headed in
the right direction. But there's still challenges that remain. And GAO,
we will be a part of looking at how they're addressing those challenges.
And, of course, we'll be involved in evaluating whether they've been
successful in doing so, and where we see a need for improvement and
making suggestions for how to do it.

[Holly Hobbs:] That was Latesha Love-Grayer, talking about U.S. cyber
diplomacy efforts. Thanks for your time, Latesha.

[Latesha Love-Grayer:] Thank you for having me.

[Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To
hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or
wherever you listen and make sure to leave a rating and review to let
others know about the work we're doing. For more from the congressional
watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at
GAO.gov.