What does cybersecurity look like from Slovakia’s perspective in Washington? The envoy for cybersecurity describes whom he has to talk to in the US, why Europe is further ahead in resilience, and how political changes increase chaos. He also reminds us that trust and information sharing are the foundation of everything.
Washington up close: six counterparts you need to talk to
According to the speaker, work in Washington has six key partners: the federal and state governments, non-governmental analytical organizations, large companies, the academic community, the diplomatic community, and the UN. The complexity of federal structures is enormous – the law recognizes 18 intelligence services and there are 86 federal law-enforcement agencies operating there. Compared to Slovakia, the system is highly distributed, which complicates coordination as well as the setting of uniform rules.
Think tanks bring valuable content and create space for the exchange of experience. Big technology companies are the “owners of the internet” and without them key solutions are not made, the academic sphere contributes research and talent. At the UN, Slovakia works within the open working group on cybersecurity, where rules of global conduct are being shaped.
USA vs. Europe: regulations, resilience, and money
America, at least rhetorically, resists regulation, and when it adopts it, it is mostly sector-specific. In the speaker’s experience, healthcare is the best regulated at the federal level; elsewhere, efforts are rather patchy. In practical resilience, the US is uneven: a few large firms operate excellently, but hundreds of thousands of businesses do little – therefore Europe as a whole is safer.
There is also a difference in investment: where Americans understand the risk, they put a lot of money into security. The speaker adds that his view has not fundamentally changed – rather, it has been confirmed that the foundation of cybersecurity is trust and information sharing. Without them, neither coordinated defense nor effective prevention will emerge.
Politics, China, and Slovakia’s place
According to the speaker, the arrival of the new administration has increased chaos and uncertainty in the management of security. He described situations when officials could not speak without “talking points” from the leadership, and pointed to personnel changes that overloaded key posts. The old strategies formally remain in force, but there is concern that they will not be implemented.
In geopolitics, China is enemy number one for the US – especially from the standpoint of intelligence, intellectual property, and the economy. In defense supply chains, any link to China is quickly cut off. American actors often do not perceive the European Union as a single player, but rather as 27 states with their own interests; in cybersecurity, relationships work where they have been deliberately built. Slovakia is visible in this area and has a number of successes, but trust is not a state; it is a process – and that requires constant work.
