Monday, November 24, 2014

Cyber Security Bets Land on Blue

In writing a piece on Einstein 3, I ran across an interesting article about increases in the Cyber Security budget for Federal programs.  [See Richard Walker, in Informationweek at:
 http://www.informationweek.com/government/cybersecurity/budget-bill-boosts-cybersecurity-spending/d/d-id/1113494]

These phases in government spending, are a typical reaction to government agencies getting hacked on such a regular basis, but their spending profiles are often similar to Einstein 3.

The bill was used to expand Homeland Security's Cyber Security budget by giving $15 million in new funds to Senator Landrieu (D-La) for expansion of the Cyber Innovation Program.  She is the Chair of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, at least for a little while longer.  [see the press release at http://www.landrieu.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=4510  ]

The Cyber Innovations Center  was said by the Senator's office to provide 800 jobs in I-20 Tech Corridor in Bossier City.  Homeland gave the Center $2.5 million in 2012 and $5 million in 2013 so they could raise awareness of existing threats and educate a new generation of cyber security professionals.  Seemingly, it is important that Louisiana have its own.  In May 2014, the Senator and Jeh Johnson, who runs Homeland, where Einstein 3 resides, went to Louisiana to visit CenturyLink, one of the three ISPs on Einstein 3.

It may have been a coincidence that she was going with this largess at a time when she was running for a tight Senate campaign that was not going well.  Whether it is legitimate funding of an important program is worth looking into.  The Russians and Chinese are beating our systems every day and these kinds of expenditures do not help save us from them.  At least we know where the support for the money for Einstein 3 came from.

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