The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is pleased to announce the release of the "United States Cyber Readiness at a Glance," the first of a series of country reports assessing national-level preparedness for cyber risks based on the Cyber Readiness Index 2.0 methodology. This first report provides an extensive analysis of the United States' cyber security-related efforts and capabilities.

The Cyber Readiness Index 2.0 (CRI 2.0) shows that few countries have aligned their digital agenda with their cyber security agenda, and seeks to incentivize this alignment by bringing attention to each country's Internet-infrastructure dependencies and vulnerabilities, and the national economic erosion caused by cyber insecurity. The CRI 2.0 builds on the Cyber Readiness Index 1.0 and provides a comprehensive, comparative, experience-based methodology to assess countries' commitment and maturity to closing the gap between their current cyber security posture and the national cyber capabilities needed to support their digital future. The country reports are based on over seventy unique indicators across seven essential elements to discern operationally ready activities and identify areas for improvement in the following categories: national strategy, incident response, e-crime and law enforcement, information sharing, investment in research and development, diplomacy and trade, and defense and crisis response.

As Melissa Hathaway, CRI leading author, explains: "the United States, like many other countries around the world, has yet to align its economic vision with its national security imperatives …"

According to the CRI 2.0 assessment, the United States is on a path to becoming cyber ready, and is currently partially operational in most of the seven CRI essential elements. As the United States continues to develop and update its economic (digital agenda) and national cyber security strategies, policies, and initiatives to reflect a more balanced approach that aligns its national economic visions with its national security priorities, updates to this country profile will reflect those changes and monitor, track, and evaluate substantive and notable improvements.

The CRI 2.0 methodology is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, and is currently being applied to 125 countries. The CRI country profiles of Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom are forthcoming.

Ms. Hathaway is a PIPS Senior Fellow and member of the Board of Regents. She led cybersecurity initiatives for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama until August 2009, when she left to establish Hathaway Global Strategies, LLC.  The CRI team additionally includes Chris Demchak, Jason Kerben, Jennifer McArdle, and Francesca Spidalieri.