Cyber Security: A Crisis of Prioritization

Full Title of Reference

Cyber Security: A Crisis of Prioritization

Full Citation

President's Information Technology Advisory Council, Cyber Security. A Crisis of Prioritization (2005). U.S. Government. Online Paper. Web

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Categorization

• Resource by Type: US Government Reports and Documents

Synopsis

The President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) is appointed by the President to provide independent expert advice on maintaining America’s preeminence in advanced information technology (IT). PITAC members are IT leaders in industry and academia with expertise relevant to critical elements of the national IT infrastructure such as high-performance computing, large-scale networking, and high-assurance software and systems design. The Committee’s studies help guide the Administration’s efforts to accelerate the development and adoption of information technologies vital for American prosperity in the 21st century.

The PITAC chose cyber security as one of their topics for evaluation. PITAC concentrated their efforts on the focus, balance, and effectiveness of current Federal cyber security research and development (R&D) activities. The PITAC’s review of current Federally supported R&D in cyber security finds an imbalance in the current cyber security R&D portfolio: most support is for short-term, defense-oriented research; there is relatively little support for fundamental research to address the larger security vulnerabilities of the civilian IT infrastructure, which supports defense systems as well. Therefore, PITAC urges changes in the Federal government’s cyber security R&D portfolio to:

• Increase Federal support for fundamental research in civilian cyber security by $90 million annually at NSF and by substantial amounts at agencies such as DARPA and DHS to support work in 10 high-priority areas identified by PITAC.
• Intensify Federal efforts to promote recruitment and retention of cyber security researchers and students at research universities, with an aim of doubling this profession’s numbers by the end of the decade.
• Provide increased support for the rapid transfer of Federally developed cutting-edge cyber security technologies to the private sector.
• Strengthen the coordination of the Interagency Working Group on Critical Information Infrastructure Protection and integrate it under the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program.