Biden seeks 10% bump to civilian cybersecurity spending for FY25

Federal civilian agencies would be in line for a 10% increase in cybersecurity funds under the White House’s 2025 budget request.

The funding would bring the total federal civilian cyber spend to $12.33 billion for fiscal 2025, up from estimated current levels of $11.21 billion this year, as the U.S. works to secure federal networks and combat nation-state cyber threats and hacking campaigns from cybercriminals.

The Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, takes the biggest share of the funds at $3.15 billion, an increase from around $3 billion in last year’s budget request. The other top funded agencies include Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department, which are heavily involved in data privacy and financial security enforcement.

The funding request looks to deliver on a sweeping National Cybersecurity Strategy released last spring that was driven by headline-making cyberattacks against public and private networks over the past few years.

“Federal agencies are enhancing the protection of federal systems through modernization of cybersecurity defenses, improving information sharing between the federal government and the private sector, and strengthening the United States’ ability to rapidly respond to incidents when they occur,” said a readout in the budget table, which also mentions a key September deadline where agencies will need their zero trust protection strategies finalized.

The National Cyber Strategy is meant to bolster the federal government’s cybersecurity posture, including its workforce. It came with a hefty implementation plan, released this past summer, that recommended agencies carry out components of the framework to meet its goals, including hardening defenses against critical infrastructure hacks and taking an offensive stance against nation states and cybercriminals seeking to compromise U.S. interests. 

A new version of that implementation blueprint is expected in the coming months, officials have publicly said.

Civilian agencies have faced myriad cyber threats over the past year, including an incident where Chinese operatives accessed emails from high-level State Department and Commerce Department officials.

The allocations, if passed into law, would mark a record high for IT and cyber spending at $75.13 billion in 2025, up from around $74.56 billion in the prior year.