Bush pushes cybersecurity

0 Comments | USA TODAY, March, 2008 | by Richard Wolf

WASHINGTON -- A sudden spike in the number of successful attacks against federal government information systems and databases has led President Bush to propose a multibillion-dollar response.

The number of incidents reported to the Department of Homeland Security rose by 152% last year, to nearly 13,000, according to a new government report. The security breaches, more than 4,000 of which remain under investigation, ranged from the work of random hackers to organized crime and foreign governments, says Tim Bennett, president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance.

The increase and severity of data breaches prompted Bush to recommend a 10% increase in cybersecurity funding for the coming fiscal year, to $7.3 billion. That's a 73% increase since 2004.

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