Biden’s cyber budget good, but still insufficient to meet the threats

Excerpt

The White House’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2022 will seek significant increases in cybersecurity funding for most federal agencies. Cybersecurity, the budget plan asserted, is “a top priority” for the Biden administration. While the White House deserves praise for these allocations, the budget missed significant opportunities, which congressional appropriators will need to address.

The White House is requesting a 14 percent increase in federal civilian cybersecurity spending, or $9.8 billion all together. This comes on top of the FY2021 11 percent spending growth among major civilian departments and agencies. The $1.2 billion annual increase includes an additional $750 million for “agencies affected by recent, significant cyber incidents.” These figures do not include $650 million already appropriated for the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) through the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) or the $1.5 billion infusion to the Technology Modernization Fund, $1 billion of that from the ARPA.

The proposed budget includes a $40 million dollar increase — or $458.4 million total — for the FBI’s cyber investigations and an additional $15.2 million to shore up the Bureau’s own cybersecurity. The proposal also increases State Department funding for international capacity building measures to combat cybercrime.