OPINION — I not too long ago had a dialog with senior intelligence group leaders about their want to construct stronger partnerships with private-sector know-how firms—the so-called “Silicon Valley” ecosystem. They have been asking for recommendation on easy methods to have interaction, construct relationships, and finally set up strategic partnerships.
However the firms they have been most occupied with? They have been largely consumer-facing platforms. Modern, sure—however not mission-aligned. That dialog highlighted a broader, extra elementary hole I’ve been fascinated about for a very long time: Why are there no U.S. offensive cyber unicorns?
We definitely have protection contractors who do cyber work—on website, on contract, embedded with the federal government. And we have now standout cybersecurity firms like CrowdStrike, Mandiant, and Dragos centered on detection, response, and resilience. However the place are the startups constructing offensive cyber instruments and platforms? The place’s the VC-backed innovation mannequin we’ve seen in drones, hypersonics, and area?
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Firms like Anduril and SpaceX have confirmed that Silicon Valley-style innovation—product-focused, capital-efficient, fast-moving—can thrive within the nationwide safety area. So why hasn’t that strategy been utilized to offensive cyber? Sure, there are authorized and secrecy constraints. However those self same constraints haven’t stopped business firms from constructing weapons methods or extremely labeled ISR platforms.
Check out the NatSec100 – a curated checklist of prime protection and nationwide safety startups. You’ll discover firms engaged on AI, autonomy, sensing, and cybersecurity. However not a single one centered on offensive cyber. Why not?
Shouldn’t we would like the perfect minds at CrowdStrike or Mandiant to spin off and construct next-generation offensive platforms? Shouldn’t the DOD and IC be seeding these concepts and constructing an ecosystem that encourages this sort of innovation?
I consider we must always.
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