Government devotes more brainpower and money to cybersecurity

Cybersecurity, fast becoming Washington's growth industry of choice, appears to be in line for a multibillion-dollar injection of federal research dollars, according to a senior intelligence official.

Delivering the keynote address at a recent cybersecurity summit sponsored by Defense Daily, Dawn Meyerriecks, deputy director of national intelligence for acquisition and technology, said that along with the White House Office of Science and Technology, her office is going to sponsor major research "where the government's about to spend multiple billions of dollars." This newest element of the federal cybersecurity initiative will not be looking for what Meyerriecks called "classic Beltway . . . commercial answers" to be applied to today's hacker problems at federal agencies. "I think we need to be really innovative, because I think we're going to run out of runway on our current approach," she said.

Three themes are to be stressed in this upcoming cybersecurity research agenda, she said. The first is called "tailored trustworthy spaces," which means creating different security levels for different government and non-government Internet activities. The second is called "moving targets," in which the search is for security systems that change constantly to increase uncertainty for hackers, recognizing that all systems inevitably become vulnerable. Finally, there will be research in "economic incentives," which, as it sounds, involves seeking to find ways to motivate users to adopt cybersecurity defenses, recognizing that convenience has caused consumers to ignore security pop-ups.