SAN FRANCISCO — The Trump administration’s two-week old cyber strategy that aims to promote more proactive, offensive actions while bolstering federal networks and critical infrastructure, is a significant shift that’s already materializing in meaningful ways, a group of experts said Monday at the RSAC 2026 Conference.
Despite the federal government’s absence from the industry’s largest annual gathering, and the long-anticipated document’s brevity, representatives from a major cybersecurity vendor, consulting, venture capital and law firm were quick to defend and evangelize the administration’s strategic actions in cyberspace.
The freshly-released strategy puts the federal government on firm footing to move beyond deterrence and into action, said David Lashway, partner and global leader of cybersecurity and national security at Sidley Austin.
“We are going to take offensive and defensive action with the most powerful cyber capability that the world’s ever seen, and hopefully will ever know,” he said.
This doesn’t mean, as some industry observers have suggested, that the Trump administration is pushing private companies to hack back.
The scale and whole of government response is the key difference between the latest federal cyber strategy and what administrations have called for over the past decade, Lashway said.
Instead of relying on private lawyers to get a nationwide injunction and collaborate with dozens of governments for massive takedowns, or government agencies collaborating with private security companies on a limited basis, the strategy aims to mobilize “the massive infrastructure and capability of the United States in a more coordinated way,” he added.
This strategic pivot won’t achieve all of its objectives immediately, but it’s already showing signs of impact, according to Lashway. “It’s been different since they issued the strategy,” he said. “We’ve already noticed a difference.”
Wendi Whitmore, chief security intelligence officer at Palo Alto Networks, said she’s also seen more collaboration in the private sector.
“While there’s no doubt challenges related to current staffing and the dynamic environment going on with the government, I have never before seen as much action and cooperation as we are seeing today, and that’s from every government agency that we’re working with,” Whitmore said.
“There is certainly a tremendous shift in the level of discussion that we get from the government today,” she added. “It’s a very proactive, kind of muscular dialogue that’s different from what I’ve previously seen.”
Experts said that earlier concerns about triggering backlash and worsening already fragile systems had kept the federal government from taking certain actions, but that caution is now being reconsidered.
“The government’s going to start punching people in the face,” said Jamil Jaffer, venture partner and strategic advisor at Paladin Capital Group.
Trump administration officials have told the private sector it wants their help and they need to be well defended, he added. “If we do live in glass houses, well, everyone’s going to need to start putting more glass up.”
Jaffer expects the Trump administration to prevent and respond to intrusions aggressively and publicly. “Half the problem with deterrence today is we don’t actually practice real deterrence when it comes to the cyber domain. We don’t punch people back,” he said.
The dynamic and proper response, to him, is akin to a child responding to a bully at school.
“If you get hit in the face, punch them back in the face,” Jaffer said. “Do it publicly. Everyone sees it. Less people come after you.”
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