Looking for Leap-Ahead Tech

The Homeland Security Department's Directorate for Science & Technology, which is the primary research and development arm of the Homeland Security Department, requested an increase of $5.4 million for cybersecurity in President Obama's fiscal 2010 budget.

Brad Buswell, acting under secretary of the directorate, didn't provide specific numbers in his testimony before the House Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism, but he said the cybersecurity funding contributed to a 300 percent increase from last year, and will contribute to the development of "leap-ahead technologies" that secure the nation's computer networks and critical information infrastructure.

This is one effort in of what the National Coordination Office for Networking Information Technology Research and Development has dubbed the National Cyber Leap Year. In March, the National Coordination Office for Networking Information Technology Research and Development published a notice in the Federal Register requesting industry submit advanced research concepts to better secure federal systems. The ideas would be a "game-changing" event in shifting the balance of power in cybersecurity, the notice read.

During the hearing, Buswell noted, "The work we're doing [in cybersecurity] is work that the private sector is not doing for a number of reasons."