Examining the perspective of public policies in cyber defense area the Brazilian case

This article analyzes the importance of public policies aiming at cyberspace in Brazil in the period from 2000 to 2023. The question that guides the text is: how did the Brazilian governments in this period present their cyber defense objectives in their respective “National Defense White Papers”, the 2008 and 2020 National Defense Strategy and other high-level national defense documents, transforming them into effective actions? The methodology adopted is exploratory research with a qualitative approach. The hypothesis of this research is that although there has been the creation of norms and the development of initiatives that demonstrate the greater importance of cyber defense for Brazil in the 21st century, we can verify the lack of initiatives marked by the conception of long-term public policies. This article is structured in three topics. The first one brings a succinct debate on public policies in the defense area. The second topic analyzes the development of norms and public policies in Brazil aimed at cyber defense. The third topic presents some policies adopted and examples of the cybernetic capacity obtained by this country.