CISA 2030: America’s cyber agency moves from passive defence to proactive cyber defence and hardening of critical infrastructure

From passive defence to proactive action: that is the main change the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is attempting with its new strategy. On Monday, October 26 the agency published “CISA 2030: Defend, Harden, Prevail”, which sets out how it will protect US networks and critical infrastructure.

As CISA itself announced in its press release, the strategy implements President Donald Trump’s “Cyber Strategy for America”, published in March 2026, and the 2026 National Resilience Strategy. The full text also refers to Executive Order 14239. The agency describes an environment in which state and other malicious actors are increasingly sophisticated in their attempts to penetrate American networks, and says it will detect, disrupt and eliminate adversary access, while hardening infrastructure against new threats.

Acting CISA Director Nick Andersen addressed the whole critical infrastructure community. “I call on every company and organization in the critical infrastructure community, from owners and operators to technology vendors and manufacturers, to act now,” he said. CISA 2030, he added, is “a focused roadmap to strengthen defenses, eliminate hostile footholds and deny any advantage that could endanger the nation’s security, economy or public health.”

Three pillars

The strategy rests on three pillars. The first, “Defend”, concerns leadership of national cyber defence: working with government and industry to reduce risk, disrupt malicious activity and harden the technologies that will shape the future. The second, “Harden”, prioritises the infrastructure whose disruption would have the greatest impact on public safety, economic security and national security. The third, “Prevail”, concerns mobilising national resilience, that is the country’s ability to keep functioning under pressure, by strengthening communications continuity and partnerships for rapid collective response.

The 12-page text lays out the main goals of each pillar. In cyber defence they include bringing together the capabilities of government, industry, state, local, tribal and territorial partners and international organisations, the security and resilience of operational technology (OT), software security as a strategic advantage, and protection of the technology ecosystem, even of “transformative technologies” such as superintelligence and quantum computing. For hardening infrastructure, the strategy provides for integrating intelligence into operations, together with the US Intelligence Community, and prioritisation based on risk and consequence, also supporting the National Risk Register being developed by the White House. CISA says it will give lower priority to approaches that do not depend on the threat and cover all hazards.

The third pillar includes building regional capabilities through the agency’s ten regional offices, modernising planning and exercises, and next-generation infrastructure. It also provides for strengthening National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) communications, prioritising voice, video and data and making use of 5G/6G networks and commercial satellite constellations. The agency confirms that it retains, as assigned by the Department of Homeland Security, its role in activating and restoring these communications, which are critical for continuity of government in times of crisis.

Deadlines

The strategy sets three deadlines. Within 60 days CISA will begin a review of its core services and capabilities, within 180 days it will present a plan for implementation and measuring results, and within 365 days it will submit a progress report. In the document’s foreword, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin ties the strategy to the 250 years of the United States and calls on every level of government and infrastructure owners to unite.

On CISA’s recent activity, Geopolitiki has covered the agency’s guidance on operational resilience in the face of AI token consumption.