At a glance.
- What does the White House’s proposed budget for FY 2023 mean for cybersecurity?
What does the White House’s proposed budget for FY 2023 mean for cybersecurity?
US President Joe Biden yesterday presented Congress with the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2023, allocating $5.8 trillion in resources to support the strategies he set out in his recent State of the Union address. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a statement outlining how the $97.3 billion set aside for his agency would be used, noting that $1 billion will go toward improving cyber risk analysis, strengthening the security posture of federal government networks, and creating an integrated defense system for IT infrastructure. “This funding supports efforts to close crucial gaps that exist in large agency enterprises and provides DHS with visibility into unauthorized, potentially malicious, or adversary activity targeting Federal networks,” the statement reads. $8 million of that will be allocated to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Cybersecurity Advisory Committee and Cyber Safety Review Board and will be used to fund the creation of an Advisory Council Program Management Office. As NextGov notes, CISA is expected to add two hundred seventy-six full-time staff members in FY 2023. $425 million has been designated to the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program, and $175 million will go toward enhancing the security of privately-owned critical infrastructure. Though CISA has been allocated $500 million more than last year, Research and Development will actually receive less than in previous years.
While the Washington Post notes that the budget aims to reduce the deficit, Biden has allocated $10.9 billion in cybersecurity funding to civilian government agencies, an 11% increase over last year. Voting security is an area of focus, and President Biden has proposed a $10 billion grant program headed by the Election Assistance Commission. CISA will receive $2.5 billion, 20% more than Biden’s request last year, but less than Congress eventually ended up allocating. With the ongoing war in Ukraine, $682 million is directed toward “to counter Russian malign influence” in Ukraine, including cybersecurity, and President Biden is also “calling for one of the largest investments in our national security in history” with a defense spending increase of approximately 4% more than last year.
Reaction to the budget was generally positive. Cyber Threat Alliance CEO and former White House cyber czar Michael Daniel told the Washington Post, “This is a kind of a preliminary picture, but I think it…ends a very strong signal that cybersecurity continues to be a priority for this administration, and it’s something that they’re willing to back up their executive orders and their policy documents with funding in the budget.” An aide for Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters said the chairman “supports providing appropriate funding for CISA to ensure it can conduct its mission — particularly as cybersecurity threats from the Russian government continue to grow.” Jim Langevin, a commissioner on the Cyberspace Solarium Commission also applauded the budget, but said he was “deeply concerned” that no funding was allocated to the new State Department Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy. Rep. John Katko, the House Homeland Security Committee’s top Republican, said he felt the budget’s focus on cybersecurity falls short. “This budget request would have been commendable a year ago, but the current cyber threat landscape has changed drastically and requires significantly more,” he stated.