NNSA wants more funding for cybersecurity

The Bush administration wants to increase protection for the country’s nuclear stockpiles from attacks launched online.The Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) requested more than $122 million for cybersecurity spending — a 22 percent increase from  the fiscal 2008 budget — to protect sensitive and classified information.The funds would be used to appropriate plans, policies and procedures, assessments, tests, monitoring and self-assessments, certifications, and training and awareness for users and administrators.The Bush administration's budget, released Feb. 4, said the money would be used to “plan, document, and test classified automated information systems, [maintain] communications security, and maintain appropriate level of infrastructure reliability and integrity” along with helping to maintain nonclassified automated information systems.The department also requested about $26 million for information security, nearly $7 million more than it received the previous year. The department also wants funding boosts for material control and accountability, and personnel security. Physical security systems and overall program management would get less money to support the increases.Overall, NNSA requested about $860 million for security, roughly $40 million less than it received in fiscal 2008.Numerous cybersecurity problems at the department have come to light over the past few months. A recently released report by the department's inspector general report said Energy had 132 serious security breaches in fiscal 2006.