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Category: IT and Cybersecurity

White House Memo on Science Priorities for FY2017

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The White House’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shaun Donovan, and OSTP Director, John Holdren, sent their annual joint FY2017 priorities memo to the science agency heads.

The memo urges agency leaders to take the priorities into consideration as they begin to prepare their FY2017 budget proposals for OMB.  Per the memo, “Agency proposals aligned with multi-agency R&D priorities and demonstrating interagency coordination are more likely to be prioritized in FY2017 Budget deliberations.”

Read the memorandum here.

 

 

House Passes Two Cyber Security Bills

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It was cybersecurity week for the House as it considered and passed two measures dealing with cybersecurity and information sharing to better address cyber threats. Lawmakers, government officials and most industry groups have strongly backed this idea of needing to share information safely, and all made cyber info-sharing a top 2015 legislative priority. The House today wrapped up the work week today as it finished considering the second of two cybersecurity bills. The legislation is the first two of three measures Congress must pass to finally get a cyber info-sharing law in place.

On Wednesday, the House passed the first major cybersecurity bill since the calamitous hacks on Sony Entertainment, Home Depot and JPMorgan Chase. Passed by a vote of 307-116, HR 1560 – the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (PCNA), was backed by House Intelligence Committee leaders and would give companies liability protections when sharing cyber threat data with government civilian agencies, such as the Treasury or Commerce Departments. The goal of the measure is to increase the public-private flow of information about hacking attempts. Advocates of the legislation say such an exchange is the biggest first step the country can take to thwart hackers.  Privacy advocates and other opponents argue the bill will simply shuttle more sensitive information to the National Security Agency (NSA), further empowering its surveillance authority.

On Thursday, the House considered and passed HR 1731 — National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act by a 355-63. The intent of the law is to enhance the flow of information about hackers’ tactics between the government and private sector. Advocates say both sides need more data on the threats they face so they can bolster the nation’s faltering network defenses. Again, opposition to the legislation cautioned that this would just further empower the NSA. Shifting these abilities and empowering the Department of Homeland Security, however, has been more politically palatable. The DHS is seen as the agency most technically capable of stripping personal information from any data received before it is shared with the rest of the federal government. A cyber info-sharing hub at the department — with its established privacy oversight measures —  is also considered the ideal locale under which to consolidate domestic cyber efforts.

Both measures have the tepid approval of the White House.

The Senate had been hoping to bring its companion bill, known as the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, to the floor sometime in April. Timing for consideration of a cyber bill in the upper chamber remains fluid.

To learn more about HR 1731 – National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act of 2015, click here.
To learn more about HR 1560 – Protecting Cyber Networks Act, click here.

DOD Announces Silicon Valley Outpost for Cyber

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In a speech at Stanford today, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced a new initiative designed to improve Department of Defense  (DOD) innovation through the creation of a permanent Pentagon presence in Silicon Valley, a move already taken by the Department of Homeland Security.  The Department plans to create the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental in Northern California to serve as a permanent office that will be a conduit between the California technology community, military reservists, and the DOD.

Secretary Carter emphasized increasing innovation with better partnering between industry, startups, and academia with government funded research and development. The Defense Innovation Unit will be designed to reach out to the commercial sector to drive new technologies, better connect DOD activities with those in Silicon Valley, and find better ways to transition DOD discoveries.

This effort is part of department’s work to regain technological superiority as announced in November through the Defense Innovation Initiative (DII). DII is intended to focus on three themes: increasing competitiveness by attracting talented workforce, develop and field breakthrough technologies and to use current capabilities in different ways, and finding new ways to fight, train and create organizational constructs. In addition, DOD recognizes the need to be more open to global, commercial technology and learn from advances in the private sector.

This annoucment is a significant update to the Pentagon’s four year-old cyber-strategy. It will commit DOD to creating an effective deterrent to cyberattacks against America, but also stresses the limits of the military’s role in cyberspace. Two key components of that deterrent will be denying attackers the benefits they hope to gain from a cyberattack and ensuring there’s a U.S. response to every major attack, even if it’s just a strongly-worded public statement, the official said.

Other strategy goals include strengthening DOD’s cyber infrastructure, improving the department’s cyber intelligence and warning capabilities, and working with the DHS to share information The strategy also reflects a shift to more actively incorporating the military’s Reserve and National Guard components into Cyber Mission Forces.

 

NDAA Sent to Senate

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The House passed HR 3979 the FY15 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by a vote of 300-119. The Senate is expected to take up and pass the measure next week.

The measure, which must be passed annually, authorizes all Pentagon and defense-related programs for the fiscal year. In FY15, the measure authorizes $577.1 billion for the Pentagon and defense-related programs for FY 2015, of which $63.7 billion is war-related funding — including $5.1 billion requested by the president to counter the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Defense spending continues to account for well over 50% of overall federal discretionary spending.

The bill extends the administration’s authority to train and equip Syrian rebels fighting both ISIS and the Assad regime and authorizes funding to help train the Iraqi Army in its fight against ISIS. It includes new provisions to combat sexual assault in the military, continues restrictions on the transfer of Guantánamo Bay detainees and allows the Pentagon to slightly reduce servicemembers’ housing allowances and impose a small copay for prescription drugs. It also includes a major package of non-defense-related land management provisions, including an appropriation for the PILT program and provisions creating new National Park units.

Additionally, the legislation includes strong language on increasing military cyber security.  These efforts come in the wake of two years of leaks from Defense Department insiders and cyberattacks on both the department and its contractors, including Manning and Snowden.

The measure would require the Defense Department to report back to Congress by March 2015 on its efforts to build both interim and long-term capabilities to continuously evaluate the security status of employees with access to classified information. Another provision in the bill is directly linked to a report the Senate Armed Services Committee released in September detailing what congressional leaders called a disturbing lack of communication on cyberattacks between agencies.

Additionally, the bill would add cybersecurity to the department’s list of major force programs. The department groups certain activities into those groups for budgeting and mission planning — the current list includes programs such as special operations, mobility forces and guard and reserve forces. Breaking cybersecurity out into its own major force would serve a symbolic move to show that the issue has been elevated to a high priority for the department.

 

House Committee to Consider the FIRST Act

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On Wednesday, the House Science Committee will mark up HR 4186, the FIRST Act, a bill which will reauthorize NIST, NSF and a host of other federal science-focused programs. This is the 113th Congress’s version of the America COMPETES reauthorization.

While in previous Congresses this legislation has been bipartisan and uncontroversial, the FIRST Act has been increasingly acrimonious through both committee hearings and markups. The political situation has been exacerbated by interactions between NSF and House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX), which has been previously chronicled in the Federal Affairs Blog.

The higher education community has been, and remains, concerned about this legislation (and its various iterations) on several issues including: the overall funding level for NSF; directorate-level funding; and some significant policy changes including the public access embargo period.

Of primary concern is the change to not only the overall funding levels, but that Congress now specifically authorizes the various directorates within NSF for funding allocations. NSF has never had individual directorates called out for specific funding levels, which causes Congressionally mandated “winners” and “losers.”

Most troubling is the authorization funding levels. When you compare the proposed NSF authorization levels of FY14 to FY15, there are several notable increases in funding at the directorate level.  Some NSF directorates receive significant increases at the expense of others.  Here are the numbers:

  •  Biological Sciences (Bio) +5.4%
  •  Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) +7.7%
  •  Engineering (ENG) +7.0%
  •  Geosciences (GEO) -2.9%
  •  Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) +7.7%
  •  Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) -22.1%
  •  Six cumulative: 3.2%

NSF would receive an overall 1.5% increase.

Some Members of Congress may suggest that the FY15 authorization levels in the FIRST Act provide real funding increases for NSF — the total level of funding for NSF is only up by 1.5% — however, this increase does not cover the cost of inflation (1.7 percent). In reality, NSF would have a .2% cut after inflation.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to track the legislation as it works through the committee process.