The Trump administration intends to allocate about 2020 17,4 billion dollars in cybersecurity to be distributed among federal agencies and central government institutions. Most of these funds, in fact, will go to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.
The White House published on Monday an initial breakdown of the expenditure items for the 2020 budget which shows, in a general way, the "American strategic" commitment to cyber security. However, the Trump administration has reserved the right not to disclose the actual value of some funds due to the "sensitive nature of some operations".
Looking at some data, it was noted that overall federal spending on cybersecurity compared to 790 million in 2019 has decreased by about 120 million for 2020.
Most of the funds were instead directed to the Defense and Security sectors.
President Trump wanted to increase the funds for the Department of Defense who will receive about 9,6 billion dollars - the 55 percent of total government IT spending - to strengthen its digital defenses and expand offensive operations in cyberspace. However, the administration did not want to spell out the details of the Pentagon's cyber budget. The only sure thing is that compared to the 2019 there has been an increase of around 1 billion dollars.
The proposed budget also allocates approximately $ 1,9 billion to the Department of Homeland Security. Half of this budget will be allocated to CISA - Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The funds will allow the agency to increase the number of network risk assessments that lead to supporting government IT infrastructure protection programs.
While the CISA, customs and border protection and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will see their IT budgets increase, the agency's primary research wing, the Science and Technology Directorate, will lose the 75 per cent of financing in the IT sector.
The FBI, the State Department and the Federal Aviation Administration will each receive an increase in 8-10% in their IT budgets. The Food and Drug Administration will have an 70% increase in computer security allocations.
Cyber Defense in Italy
Cyber defense requires significant and constant investments, so began the defense minister Elisabetta Trenta in the 2018 before the Senate and Chamber Defense committees.
Then the minister stated: "A series of acquisition programs have been launched to access high-tech operational tools capable of ensuring the protection, resilience and efficiency of the management and operational information networks and systems of Defense. It is essential to continue investing to further enhance the instrumental and organizational equipment of cyber protection and IT security. This is the only way to increase the ability to effectively combat threats. Italy has launched some initiatives in this regard, but real progress requires funding of a very different entity. And these can only be guaranteed by institutionalizing national cyber protection spending in the overall defense budget ".
The Minister of Defense, Elisabetta Trenta, had highlighted the problem, even at a NATO summit, asking the Italian government to include investment in cyber security in the calculation of the 2% of GDP, foreseen for NATO allied countries by 2024.
In the 2019 budget "very far" goal
Probably the request to NATO della Trenta tended to find a "trick" to increase the funds for cyber security, considering that the budget for his Dicastery is really minimal (source DPP Difesa: 6,5 million 2019 - 11,1 million 2020 - 28 million 20121/23 - 472,5 million 2024/2033) about 525 million euros spread over 16 years. It has been planned for the three-year period 2019/21 1 million euro increase for "... interventions and instrumental equipment in the field of cyber defense, as well as strengthening national energy resilience capacities ".
To provide a term of comparison, the "Loi de Programmation Militaire 2019-2025”Recently approved in France foresees, precisely for the "cyber security" allocations equal to 1,6 billion euros.
Only the extraordinary allocation announced by the Renzi government in 2016 of 150 million euros had deluded the insiders and opened up some perspectives.
Another country that is moving with upward percentage trends is the UK that on average dedicates to cybersecurity, in the annual budgets, no less than 800 million pounds.
Increasing cybernetic threat
Dan Coats, director of the US National Intelligence, has launched a real cry of alarm claiming that the danger signals detected daily by the various cyber defense Agencies have recently reached levels comparable to those of the periods immediately preceding the 11 September. Faced with this escalation, the United States is thinking of proposing to the NATO Allies to increase their defense budget at least up to 4% of GDP. A proposal that is difficult to achieve in light of the impending economic situation.