Obama administration to create new high-level federal cyber official

President Barack Obama’s budget proposal for the 2017 fiscal year seeks $19 billion for cyber security across the US government, a surge of $5 billion over this year, according to senior administration officials.

A separate executive order will create the Federal Privacy Council, which is a multi-agency task force charged with coming up with policies to help the government fight hackers or identity thieves, while also protecting the privacy of individuals.

He added that increased reliance on artificial intelligence “is creating new vulnerabilities to cyberattacks and influence operations”, adding that these systems “are susceptible to a range of disruptive and deceptive tactics that might be hard to anticipate or quickly understand”.

“The Commission will report to the President with its specific findings and recommendations before the end of 2016, providing the country a roadmap for future actions that will build on the CNAP and protect our long-term security online”, said the fact sheet.

President Barack Obama is seeking a 35 percent increase in cybersecurity funding in his 2017 fiscal year budget plan.

But a major hurdle standing in the way of collaboration is a lack of trust on the part of business leaders, particularly in the wake of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about how the government used private companies’ systems in spying.

The hiring of a single high-level official to deal with cyber intruders in federal government networks establishes a position long in place at companies in the private sector.

The President boasts in his WSJ op-ed that his government is “doing more to help empower Americans to protect themselves online”, by which he means a “national awareness campaign to raise awareness of cyberthreats”. Consolidating systems is a good idea, but the federal government lacks people with the skills to run them, said Alan Paller, research director at the SANS Institute, a Bethesda-based cyber training center.

The fund requires approval from the U.S. Congress. Much of the plan could be initiated using the president’s executive authority, Daniel said, but the administration plans to work closely with Congress.

The budget also spends $62 million on cybersecurity education programs. The government will work with Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure Initiative, and other organizations in a effort to secure Internet “utilities” such as open-source software, protocols and standards.

The U.S. has faced serious data breaches and intrusions over the past two years.

The Obama initiative calls for a more than one-third increase from the $14 billion appropriated this year and would include $3.1 billion for technology modernization at various federal agencies.

The Commerce Department will house the new Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, which will consist of as many as 12 presidential appointees.

In a statement from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, he said the White House disagreed with the decision and they were “confident that [they would] prevail on the merits”.

After meeting with his national security team and cybersecurity advisers, Obama tells reporters that one of the biggest gaps between the government and private sector is information technology “and it makes everyone’s security vulnerable”.