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On Thursday, the Biden administration defended the cybersecurity agency’s large budget request — an increase of nearly $300 million, or 13% from last year — by saying the extra money is for people, processes and partnerships.
The White House’s demand for fiscal year 2023 of approximately $2.5 billion has increased by approximately $500 million from 2021 and more than $300 million from President Biden’s demand for fiscal 2022.
At a congressional hearing, Representative Chuck Fleischmann pressed Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to explain where the money was going, given how quickly the agency’s budget was growing.
“We need to have the money to build human capital and buy and finance our finance office and facilities,” said Ms. Easterly. “So the engine that drives the ability to create tasks is incredibly important.”
Tennessee Republican Mr. Fleischmann said the new $2.5 billion request would reach a jump of $1 billion that Congress had otherwise allocated to CISA.
“In my view, CISA has grown rapidly over the past few years and it is in an enviable position that significant resources have been provided by Congress,” said Mr. Fleischmann. “Over $1 billion in additional funding was raised in the past year.”
Mr Biden has urged private sector companies to take charge of their cyber defenses, but his team is also pressing lawmakers to devote more money to strengthening their relationships with businesses.
In her written statement, Ms. Easterly said the Biden administration is seeking an increase of $71 million, with an increase of $18 million for the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborator, which brings national security and law enforcement together with private sector companies to fight hackers and ransomware attackers.
Ms. Easterly said the collaborator helped build jobs with the country’s biggest tech companies to develop a multi-stage plan for what to do in the event of a cyberattack stemming from the conflict in Ukraine.
He said the government is using the messaging platform Slack to make it happen.
“You’ll remember that SolarWinds was discovered by a cybersecurity vendor, not the US government, so our partnership with these tech companies is critical,” said Ms. Easterly. “We’re also attracting the financial services industry, the 22 largest banks, 38 of the largest energy companies, into similar channels of cooperation so we can share information and early warning of malicious activity so we can be prepared to decline risk to the nation.”
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