Defending the nation in cyberspace, preventing strategic surprise and maintaining technological advantage all depend on collaboration, information sharing and a world-class workforce. This requires teamwork across the military, intelligence community, the federal agencies, industry, academia and our international partners. Leadership is vitally important as well. The U.S. government has made significant strides in defining cyberdoctrine, organizing cybercapabilities and building cybercapacity. We must do much more to sustain our momentum in a domain where adversary capabilities continue to evolve as fast as or faster than ours do. Our cyberteam can be the core of whatever national capability we build, but that capability must also extend well beyond the confines and authorities of the Department of Defense and even the federal government. Building that extended cyberenterprise now is indispensable to our ability to deter and defeat enemies in cyberspace so that they do not threaten our security, prosperity and way of life.

Keith B. Alexander is the director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command. Emily Goldman serves as strategic adviser to the commander. Michael Warner is command historian.

Image: Pullquote: Every nation has significant vulnerabilities that can be exploited in and through cyberspace; almost alone among nations, we have the ability to lessen ours dramatically.Essay Types: Essay