ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: SF Gate
16February2011 12:11pmEST
GCIS CYBER-SECURITY UPDATE: The U.S. Defense Department is planning to spend $500 million to research new cyber-security technologies, including cloud computing and encrypted data processing, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said Tuesday at a security conference in San Francisco.
The Pentagon will also provide "seed capital for companies to develop dual-use technologies that serve our cyber-security needs," Lynn said in remarks delivered at the RSA Conference.
"Cyber-defense is not a military mission, like defending our airspace, where the sole responsibility lies with the military," Lynn said. "The overwhelming percentage of our nation's critical infrastructure - including the Internet itself - is largely in private hands. It is going to take a public-private partnership to secure our networks."
The $500 million is part of the Pentagon's 2012 budget request of $2.3 billion to improve the Defense Department's cyber-capabilities. At a Pentagon news conference Monday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the research money, to be spent through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, "big investment dollars, looking to the future."
The military is reaching out to commercial companies for the latest technologies and technical experts to safeguard the Pentagon's computer networks from attacks and espionage, Lynn said. The effort is part of a "comprehensive cyber-strategy called Cyber 3.0," he said. (read full report)
