House backs cybersecurity with dollars


By Reuters
February 7, 2002, 3:40 PM PT


WASHINGTON--The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to dramatically boost federal spending on computer security, authorizing $880 million over five years for research, scholarships and other incentives.
By a vote of 400 to 12, the House agreed to devote $105.7 million to new cybersecurity programs in fiscal 2003, increasing to $229 million in fiscal 2007.

The new funds would come on top of the roughly $60 million the federal government currently devotes to network security.



The National Science Foundation and the National Institute for Standards and Technology would hand out the money in the form of research grants, fellowships and internships for students, and funds to improve undergraduate and master's degree programs in network security.

In the Senate, Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden will introduce a companion bill within the next few weeks, a Wyden aide said.

The attacks of Sept. 11 on the United States heightened concerns about the vulnerability of the nation's telecommunications, Internet and other vital networks to computer-based attack.

In several hearings this fall, experts told Congress the nation needed to spend more money to encourage long-term academic research in cybersecurity to supplement efforts by commercial software companies.

New York Republican Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, who sponsored the bill, compared it to legislation that boosted science education after the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik satellite in the late 1950s.

The bill "will come to be seen as a fundamental turning point in the nation's approach to cybersecurity," Boehlert said in remarks on the House floor.

Boehlert told reporters the bill took a long-range approach and any improvements would likely not be seen for years.

"We're not going to solve the problem in half an hour," he said.

Business groups praised the bill's passage, noting that cybersecurity attacks have increased dramatically in the past several years.

Frank Vargo, a lobbyist with the National Association of Manufacturers, said the bill was one of the most important Congress would pass all year, as most businesses have come to rely on the Internet and networked computers for their operations.

"You shut that computer network down, that company is closed," Vargo said.

Boehlert's House Science Committee also approved a bill in December that would increase spending on broader high-tech research by 10 percent per year over the next five years, giving the money to a wide range of government agencies that would be required to coordinate their efforts.

That bill will come up for a vote on the House floor "in a few weeks," Boehlert told reporters.

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