DoD Seeks Boost For Defensive Cyber Tech In 2022 Budget

The Pentagon plans to increase investments in defensive cyber tech like cryptology, endpoint management, and zero-trust architectures to protect DoD networks in its 2022 budget, while cutting back on overseas “hunt-forward” cyber operations.

Notably, the Fiscal Year 2022 budget request includes a new line item for “imbedding zero-trust architectures,” with a proposed $615 million earmarked. The government has made a huge push to promote zero-trust security this year.

The biggest year-over-year spending increase compared to FY 2021 line items is for cryptology. The FY 2022 request is $980.9 million, compared to a requested $678.8 million in 2021, an increase of $302 million. Next comes endpoint management, which will include automated continuous endpoint monitoring. DoD is requesting $339.7 million for 2022 versus $67.2 million requested in 2021, a boost of $272.5 million. Finally comes mission assurance. The request for 2022 is $715 million, versus a requested $460.4 million in 2021, some $254.6 million more.

On the civilian side of the federal government, the Biden administration’s first proposed budget includes an additional $110 million for CISA, $500 million to modernize IT at federal agencies, and another $750 million to close gaps in federal agency cyber defenses following a slew of cyber campaigns over the past year.