US Government’s Critical Move To Bolster Cyber Security

After a slew of cyber security attacks since late 2021 on top US companies and federal agencies, the House Appropriations has made the critical decision to fund additional cyber security initiatives. Data breaches and theft are a serious problem that has plagued organizations and individuals alike, especially government institutions. This move is a potentially transformational step for the US that will enable them to advance private and public security technologies.

$15 Billion Allotment For Cyber Security

House Appropriations marked $15 billion for cyber security spending for the fiscal year 2023. These investments came as a response to President Biden’s executive order urging federal agencies to improve security standards. The executive order focuses on improving information sharing between government agencies and private sector companies and urging agencies to adopt a zero-trust policy that includes the FIDO Alliance specification, in addition to boosting preventative measures.

CISA or Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a civilian organization, received $2.9 billion, $417 million more than the amount requested by the Biden administration. This investment is bound to supplement key services that CISA provides to other federal agencies under the National Cybersecurity Protection System. Key services include continuous diagnostics and mitigation, endpoint detection, FIDO Webauthn and so on.

The House Appropriations has allotted $11.2 billion for the Defense Department, which comes with a request to study ways to collaborate more with CISA. Lawmakers asked the department to support CISA with responding to intrusions from Russia and China.

Other departments were also awarded funding aimed to help them improve their security capabilities, to support research and engineering, and even recruit and train future cyber security professionals (in the case of the National Science Foundation).

The different agencies awarded additional funding each have cyber security departments tasked with protecting them from security attacks. The additional funding allotted by the House Appropriations would empower these agencies. Strengthening the agencies’ cyber security capabilities would serve as the building blocks that would ultimately fortify the security of the nation.

Stronger Defenses For The Nation

As technology development continues to progress, cybercrime technology also evolves, making the need for modern cyber security to also evolve at a much faster rate. These risks and threats are becoming more and more complex, which is why Nok Nok Inc, along with the global FIDO Alliance, continues to push for safer cyber security measures to protect end-users. Our passwordless authentication through FIDO-based biometric authentication methods is a crucial step toward stronger security for organizations. Learn more about Nok Nok’s products here.