Cybersecurity is officially national security – so what next?
9th April 2025 • 7A Odenplan, Stockholm, Sweden
The government has just tied cyber to national security and foreign policy. Next steps for CISOs?
Better late than never: the growing significance of cyber and digital issues in global affairs
Underlining the growing conflation of cybersecurity with national security and national economic security, in December 2024 the Swedish government launched its first-ever strategy on cyber and digital issues in foreign and security policy.
The strategy, “Sweden in a Digital World—A Strategy for Sweden’s Foreign and Security Policy on Cyber and Digital Issues,” covers all aspects of foreign policy, including security, trade, human rights and development cooperation. Key priorities include working with the European Union, NATO, bilateral partners and the private sector.
“Cyber and digital issues are gaining significance and occupying increasing space in foreign and security policy. That is why we have produced a strategy to address this revolutionary development. It’s about strengthening Sweden’s prosperity and competitiveness in a digital world and strengthening our resilience to cyber threats through international cooperation,” says Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard.
That international dimension was emphasised by Sweden’s inaugural bilateral Cyber and Digital Dialogue with the United States, where the two nations reaffirmed their partnership on cybersecurity and digital policy issues.
In the dialogue, Washington and Stockholm reiterated the importance of cooperation in strengthening the security of information and communications technology systems, enhancing cyber resilience and developing next-generation technologies such as 6G, machine learning and quantum computing.
It’s about time governments understood the true significance of cybersecurity. The private sector has, in essence, built an uncontrolled and unregulated parallel universe in the digital realm which lacks – but needs – the safeguards we take for granted in the physical world.
But everyone is now playing catch-up, and the ROI for bad guys is more attractive than for the defenders: criminals get an instant financial pay-off for investing in new offensive technology and state-actors get the same in the form of the disruption they seek.
How does all this affect day to day cyber professionals? It should mean better liaison and intel from law enforcement, better regulation of third-parties, and more budgets from management. But does it?
Come to the e-Crime & Cybersecurity Congress in Stockholm to find out how your fellow cybersecurity professionals are dealing with these issues now.
