The next decade will be a turning point in the global cyber arms race. And the stakes are very high.

If measured as a country's GDP, cyber crime would now be the world's third-largest economy after the US and China. And it only takes a single password — as Americans learned after the 2021 Colonial Pipeline attack — for cyber crime to cripple a company or humiliate a nation.

On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer speaks to Jen Easterly, director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, tasked with defending the country from all cyber threats — foreign and domestic.

America, she says, has finally gotten serious about protecting itself from cyberattacks. But the federal government still needs cooperation from the private sector, which operates 80% of the critical infrastructure that serves our daily basic needs.

Easterly also digs into how Russia is the urgent cyber threat, though China could do more damage in the long term -- and whether the US is prepared to defend itself from both adversaries.

More For You

Smoke rises after an explosion at the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, Iraq, following a rocket and drone attack, according to security sources, March 17, 2026.
REUTERS/Maher Nazeh

Over 20 years after the US-led invasion upended the country, Iraq was starting to build momentum. But the US-Israeli war with Iran has brought that screeching to a halt.

- YouTube

At the 2026 World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings, GZERO’s Tony Maciulis spoke with Microsoft’s Vickie Robinson and the World Bank Group’s German Cufré on why AI readiness depends on closing the digital access gap.

Houthi solders gather in front of a digital billboard featuring a Houthi Unmanned surface vehicle in the Red Sea during a protest against the United States and Israel, amidst the ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, on July 11, 2025.
IMAGO/ Sanaa Yemen

Iran is now threatening to shut down shipping in the Red Sea unless the United States ends its blockade outside the Strait of Hormuz.