UK and US defence conduct Cyber Management Review

On 9 November 2021, UK and US representatives met face to face for the first time in 2 years for a headquarters-level forum to discuss combined cyberspace campaigns and capabilities, called the Cyber Management Review.

The Cyber Management Review is a collaborative forum between the leadership of UK Strategic Command, GCHQ, and the US National Security Agency, US Cyber Command. It is supported by ongoing interactions across multiple levels of the organisations, and provides guidance for future military and intelligence efforts in the cyber domain.

This close collaboration enables both nations to develop world-class cyber capabilities while ensuring the different organisations can work seamlessly together by using technology, insights, and activities to support shared objectives in cyberspace.

The Cyber Management Review is one way in which the UK and US can leverage and enable partnerships to generate shared insights, improve collective defence, and impose common costs for malicious cyber activity undermining the international rules-based order.

The 2021 Cyber Management Review provides the following statement, reaffirming the joint commitment to a bi-lateral relationship in cyberspace, and a shared focus to address new and emerging threats in an era of strategic competition:

As like-minded allies for two centuries, the United Kingdom and the United States share a close and enduring relationship. Our two nations today face strategic threats in an interconnected, digital world that seek to undermine our shared principles, norms, and values. We agree that strategic engagement in cyberspace is crucial to defending our way of life, by addressing these evolving threats with a full range of capabilities. To carry this out, we will continue to adapt, innovate, partner and succeed against evolving threats in cyberspace.

We will achieve this by planning enduring combined cyberspace operations that enable a collective defence and deterrence, and impose consequences on our common adversaries who conduct malicious cyber activity. As democratic cyber nations, the UK and US are committed to doing so in a responsible way in line with international law and norms, setting the example for responsible state behaviour in cyberspace.