Funding Priorities

We’re still sifting through the Obama administration’s 2011 budget proposal, where cybersecurity spending is spread among several departments and agencies. Here are a few highlights:

The Department of Homeland Security has requested $379 million to create the National Cyber Security Division, which would “support the development of capabilities to prevent, prepare for, and respond to incidents that could degrade or overwhelm the nation’s critical information technology infrastructure and key cyber networks.”

DHS is also seeking $10 million for the National Cyber Security Center, up from $5 million in fiscal year 2010. The center is “still in its infancy,” a DHS official noted during a conference call yesterday, but the new money would increase its staffing level to 40 people. The center is designed to “enhance cybersecurity coordination capabilities across the federal government, including mission integration; collaboration and coordination; situational awareness and cyber incident response; analysis and reporting; knowledge management; and technology development and management.”

Among targets for reductions in funding is the National Cybersecurity Protection System, which helps protect federal civilian government information technology enterprises by analyzing network flow and intrusion detection information. DHS said the system was being “deferred in order to fund higher-priority cybersecurity efforts.”

The FCC, meanwhile, is asking for $11 million to hire an additional 75 full-time equivalent employees to help it meet its cybersecurity responsibilities, implement its national broadband plan, and achieve other goals.

Elsewhere in the budget proposal, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s laboratories, which are involved with spectrum, energy smart grid, and cybersecurity issues, among others, are budgeted to get $709 million of funding in 2011, up 6.9% from 2010.

The latest budget proposes a slight decrease in funding -- by $9 million -- to $4.3 billion for the multi-agency Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program, which plans and coordinates agency research efforts in cybersecurity, advanced networking, and other areas.

Look for more on these proposals in the upcoming issue of Cybersecurity Policy Report. -- TL