Dive Brief:
- President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget introduced Thursday would boost cybersecurity efforts at several federal agencies, including the Pentagon, the Treasury Department and NASA. Though less of a cross-department priority, the budget also calls for more investment in IT to help improve the management and effectiveness of government.
- The proposed budget requests $61 million for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to fight terrorism and combat foreign cyberthreats as well as national security risks coming from "malicious actors’ use of encrypted products and services." The proposal also allocates $1.5 billion for Department of Homeland Security programs to protect federal networks and infrastructure from a cyberattack.
- The proposed budget encourages more coordination between the government and the private sector when it comes to cybersecurity. "Through a suite of advanced cybersecurity tools and more assertive defense of government networks, DHS would share more cybersecurity incident information with other Federal agencies and the private sector, leading to faster responses to cybersecurity attacks directed at Federal networks and critical infrastructure," the proposed budget reads.
Dive Insight:
Trump's agenda never had a heavy focus on technology, and instead focused more on cyber and protecting American businesses and government agencies from cyberattacks. More and more, government officials have referred to cyberthreats as issues of national security. In order to adequately defend Americans, increased investment has to stem from both the private and public arenas.
Support for sharing of cyberthreat data between government and the private sector is a good sign, however. As cyberthreats grow, it’s critical that government and the private sector work together. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice released the final procedures for how the government will implement its Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, an effort to encourage businesses to share their threat information.
As far as other aspects of technology are concerned, it is unclear whether the Trump administration wants to continue Obama-era efforts to make the government more digital. The proposed budget, however, does specify the need to make the government more efficient and implement technology that is not outdated by the time it is deployed.
The budget has a long way to go before it is approved. But it is a clear indication of Trump administration priorities and the desire to increase cyberdefense in the U.S.