Barack Obama US President seeks over one-third rise in cyber security funding
The initiative, to be released later on Tuesday, is more than a one-third increase from the $14 billion sought last year and will include $3.1 billion for technology modernization at various federal agencies.

President Barack Obama's budget
proposal for the 2017 fiscal year seeks $19 billion for cyber security
across the U.S. government, a surge of $5 billion over this year,
according to senior administration officials.
The
request comes as the Obama administration has struggled to address the
growing risk posed by criminals and nation states in the digital world.
The
initiative, to be released later on Tuesday, is more than a one-third
increase from the $14 billion sought last year and will include $3.1
billion for technology modernization at various federal agencies.
It is unclear whether the Republican-controlled Congress will approve the increase.
The request for a cash infusion is the latest signal from the White House that it intends to make cyber security a top priority in the last year of Obama's presidency.
The
move follows a series of high-profile hacks against the government and
companies like Sony Pictures and Target , that were largely met with
legislative inaction and administrative uncertainty on how best to
address evolving cyber threats.
Those difficulties
played out publicly last year when the Office of Personnel Management
announced it had fallen victim to a massive hack that lifted sensitive
information on roughly 22 million individuals from its databases.
The
White House will also announce Tuesday plans for a presidential
commission on cyber security, which will make recommendations on how to
strengthen defenses over the next decade. Officials, who briefed
reporters before the formal release of the Obama budget, said they would
create a new position of federal chief information security officer.
A
government watchdog report last month concluded that the government's
cyber defense system, known as Einstein, is ineffective at combating
hackers.
"No matter how good we get, we will never stop 100 percent of intrusions" Michael Daniel,
special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator, told
reporters in the briefing before the release of the budget plan.
Obama
will also sign an executive order Tuesday to create a permanent Federal
Privacy Council, which aims to connect privacy officials across the
government to develop comprehensive guidelines for how personal data is
collected and stored.
The president's budget
proposal will also call for $62 million to expand efforts to attract and
retain qualified cyber professionals working for the government, with
things like student loan forgiveness and the creation of a CyberCorps
Reserve program, where Americans can obtain college scholarships if they
pursue technical jobs in government.
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