Strengthening America’s Digital Backbone

An advisory translating the practice’s research findings into concrete recommendations for policymakers and communications-sector operators. It sets out where pre-positioned access is most likely to sit in the U.S. communications backbone, which dependencies carry the greatest cross-sector consequence, and how open, attributable evidence can be used to prioritize hardening without waiting on classified confirmation.

• 01Communications dependencies concentrate cross-sector risk that hardening programs routinely underweight.
• 02Open-source indicators are sufficient to prioritize defensive investment ahead of attribution.
• 03Policy and operator action can proceed on evidence that is inspectable and challengeable.