The White House has made clear its intentions to bolster cybersecurity, asking for $19 billion in its 2017 budget proposal as part of its Cybersecurity National Action Plan.
Here are seven things to know about the plan.
1. President Obama's request for $19 billion in cybersecurity spend is a 35 percent increase from last year's allotted $14 million, reports The Hill. Additionally, last year the White House asked for just a 10 percent increase in cybersecurity spending, totaling $1 billion.
2. The action plan is comprised of a series of near-term actions that will lay the foundation for long-term improvements in the government's approach to cybersecurity.
3. The plan calls for the establishment of a Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, which will be comprised of experts from the private sector and bi-partisan Congressional leaders. The commission will make recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity, encourage the discovery and development of new solutions and foster partnerships between government and the private sector.
4. The White House plans to hire its first CISO. The position will be funded by a $3.1 billion Information Technology Modernization Fund, which will also help modernize government IT and implement changes throughout the government.
5. The government plans to implement multi-factor authentication for Americans to further secure online accounts and reduce the government's reliance of Social Security numbers as a means to identify citizens. The National Cyber Security Alliance will launch a National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign to lead these efforts.
6. President Obama signed an Executive Order to create the Federal Privacy Council to bring together governmental privacy officials to guide the implementation of more comprehensive federal privacy guidelines.
7. A WIRED report says that while it's positive the government is taking these steps to bolster cybersecurity, they are all rather basic proposals.
"What's striking about all of these measures is that they're not much different than the advice you'd give your neighbor, or any acquaintance with a casual interest in keeping themselves just a little bit safer," according to the report. "That's encouraging, in that we're finally getting the basics right. It's also a little bit sobering, because it…is just a reminder that no matter how many systems are in place, the government, just like a company or a household, is never more than one poorly placed click from being compromised."
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