Cyber R&D Would Go Up at Defense, Down At Standards Agency

President Donald Trump’s 2019 fiscal year budget request boosts cybersecurity funding by about 4 percent across the government, including significant hikes at the Homeland Security Department and Pentagon.

The overall increase includes even larger cyber funding spikes at key agencies, including a 23 percent jump at the Energy Department, a 33 percent jump at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a 16 percent hike at the Veterans Affairs Department.

The budget, however, includes a massive cut of 18 percent to the government’s main cyber standards organization, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. That cut comes as NIST is working on an update to its cybersecurity framework, which is now mandatory for all federal agencies.

The budget also marks a major shift for cyber research and development funding inside the Homeland Security Department.

Cyber research was formerly housed primarily in the department’s Science and Technology Directorate. Going forward, that funding, which totals $41 million in the president’s budget request, will be inside the cyber and infrastructure protection division—called the National Protection and Programs Directorate, or NPPD.

The move is another blow for the Science and Technology Directorate, which has faced significant budget cuts since the start of the Trump administration.

The shift was made so “operators on the ground have influence over research and development,” a senior administration official said during a press call. The cyber and infrastructure protection division will work closely with the science and technology division on research priorities, the official said.

The budget also calls for a small spike in governmentwide information technology spending.

The president’s budget request is as much an ideological document as a budgeting one. The request lays out the executive branches’ funding priorities, but those numbers are only a rough starting point when Congress begins its own budgeting process, and they’re often ignored entirely.

Homeland Security cyber spending overall will stay roughly flat at about $1.72 billion.

The cyber division of the department’s cyber and infrastructure protection wing, however, will get a 7 percent spike from $665 million in the 2018 fiscal year to $712 million this year.

In addition to protecting federal civilian government computer networks, that division is also helping states secure their election systems against cyberattacks.

The budget includes $238 million for Homeland Security’s continuous diagnostics and mitigation program, which delivers a suite of cybersecurity tools to federal agencies and will eventually track federal computer systems on a governmentwide dashboard. That’s down from $279 million in last year’s request.

The budget commits $407 million for a governmentwide intrusion detection program called Einstein. That’s up from $397 million in last year’s request.

At the Pentagon, total cyber funding jumps to $8.5 billion in this year’s request, a 4.2 percent hike over the prior year.

That jump comes as U.S. Cyber Command, which was elevated last year to a unified combatant command, is in the process of reaching full operational capability.

The budget released Monday also:

• Includes $8 million for the White House Office of Management and Budget’s cybersecurity oversight responsibilities, down from $19 million last year.

• Includes $25 million for a cybersecurity enhancements account at the Treasury Department, which will help upgrade high-value Treasury computer systems that rely on outdated technology. The fund will also help the department respond more nimbly to cyber incidents. Overall cyber funding at Treasury will drop from about $529 million last year to $500 this year.

• Raises funding for the Justice Department’s national security division, which prosecutes cyber crimes, from $95 million to $101 million. Overall Justice Department cyber funding is at $721 million, up from $704 million last year but down from $735 during the final year of the Obama administration.

• Includes $10 million for cyber upgrades at the Transportation Department.

• Hikes Veterans Affairs Department cyber funding 16 percent from $360 million last year to $418 million this year.

• Raises cyber funding at the Office of Personnel Management 18 percent, from about $39 million to about $46 million.

• Hikes Nuclear Regulatory Commission cyber funding 33 percent, from about $24 million to about $32 million.

• Hikes Energy Department cyber funding 23 percent, from about $379 million to about $465 million.