Biden administration wants to massively boost cybersecurity spending following attacks
Multi-billion dollar infrastructure plan earmarks budget to strengthen cybersecurity of critical utilities
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The White House has shared details on how it wants to spend billions of dollars on strengthening itscybersecurityinitiatives in the wake of the recentColonial Pipelineransomware attack.
The major US fuel pipeline was knocked offline, reportedly by the DarkSideransomwaregroup, leading to a brief fuel crisis in some parts of the country.
The event was the third major US cyberattack in recent months, following theSolarWindssupply chain and theMicrosoft Exchangeemailserver attacks, and led to US President Joe Biden signing anexecutive orderthat listed various measures to prevent possible future cyber catastrophes.
In astatement, the Biden administration now looks to further capitalize on the move by highlighting the supposed cybersecurity elements in the previously proposed $2 trillion American Jobs Plan.
Cybersecurity spending
The plan includes $20 billion for state, and local governments to modernize their energy systems contingent upon meeting cybersecurity standards.
Another $2 billion is earmarked for building grid resilience in high-risk areas that will also be contingent on meeting cybersecurity targets.
The administration is also keen on presenting the plan’s call for $100 billion for high-speed broadband access as part of its cybersecurity spending based on the fact that grant recipients will be asked to source from “trusted vendors” and implement cybersecurity measures.
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“Cybersecurity is one of the preeminent challenges of our time, which is why President Biden has made strengthening U.S. cybersecurity capabilities a top priority and has already taken action to advance it, including with last week’s Executive Order,” read the statement, adding that the American Jobs Plan will build on that work.
ViaReuters
With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
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