Cybersecurity & Tech Executive Branch

Tech Tank: What To Expect From The Trump Administration on Cybersecurity

Darrell West, Stephanie Pell
Friday, January 3, 2025, 2:10 PM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

The digital world has become a dangerous place. We have seen foreign entities burrow into telecom networks and extract highly confidential information. There have been hacks of vital infrastructure, ransomware attacks, and thefts of sensitive databases

The Biden administration sought to deal with emerging threats by defending critical infrastructure, disrupting threat actors, using market forces to improve security, and forging international partnerships. 

What remains to be seen, though, is how many of these initiatives will be maintained by the new Trump administration. The Trump administration’s handling of cybersecurity is important because a CyberNews study recently found 75% of American companies scored a D or worse on cybersecurity and only 7% earned an A. Thus, the protection of the nation’s digital assets must be one of the many priorities for the incoming administration. 

On this episode of the TechTank Podcast, Brookings colleagues, Stephanie Pell and Darrell M. West, discuss ways to safeguard critical infrastructure, disrupt threat actors, and use market forces to improve security and the manner in which Trump may move on cybersecurity. 

 Listen to the episode and subscribe to the TechTank Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Acast.  


Darrell M. West is vice president and director of Governance Studies and holds the Douglas Dillon Chair. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of TechTank. His current research focuses on artificial intelligence, robotics, and the future of work. West is also director of the John Hazen White Manufacturing Initiative.
Stephanie Pell is a Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Editor at Lawfare. Prior to joining Brookings, she was an Associate Professor and Cyber Ethics Fellow at West Point’s Army Cyber Institute, with a joint appointment to the Department of English and Philosophy. Prior to joining West Point’s faculty, Stephanie served as a Majority Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee. She was also a federal prosecutor for over fourteen years, working as a Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General, as a Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

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