“The State Department’s new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy started up just about eight weeks ago. For what it doing and what it’s all about, the principal deputy assistant secretary, Jennifer Bachus spoke to the Federal Drive with Tom Temin... Tom Temin: And in looking outside, beyond the United States, what are some of the goals for cybersecurity and cyberspace and digital policy? What are we trying to achieve here? Jennifer Bachus: Well, I think what we’re trying to achieve is we’re trying to put forward a positive vision for the internet, and specifically, what we believe in is an open, reliable, secure and interoperable internet. So those are what we talk about. So this is a positive vision of what the internet is, and should be into the future. That’s our main goal... Tom Temin: And let’s talk about the bureau itself, often new government structures pull from existing ones, and kind of reconstitute things. Is that what happened here? What are some of the elements that came into this new bureau? Jennifer Bachus: Yeah, so I do like to say that while the bureau is new, what we’ve been doing on these issues has been around for decades. So we took the office that was doing cybersecurity called SCCI. We took the Economic Bureau’s office that was doing the economic policy elements, we brought those in under one tent, and then we added a digital freedom unit. And that’s completely new, as well as a strategic planning and communications element so that we can be thinking a big picture thinking about the way ahead. So again, we had about 60 positions already existing, and we’re adding about 40 more. So it will be about 100 total, when the bureau is completely up and running...” Read the full interview here. Source: We check with a new State Department bureau that’s only been open eight weeks – By Tom Temin, May 31, 2022. Federal News Network.