Report: Federal cybersecurity spending will hit $7B by 2009

Federal spending on cybersecurity is expected to increase 27 percent to $7.1 billion by fiscal 2009, according to a new report released by Input Inc., a market research company in Reston, Va.

Driving the change are an urgent need to guard against terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and recent criticisms from the Office of Management and Budget, Congress and others that federal agencies are not moving quickly enough to secure their computer networks, according to Michael Bogart, federal analyst for Input.

In February, the House Committee on Government Reform gave governmentwide cybersecurity a D grade in its annual report card.

Both military and civilian federal agencies are under pressure to beef up their cybersecurity, Bogart added.

"The government expectations of cybersecurity standards have tightened, and have put the onus on the individual agencies to get the security of their infrastructure up to par," Bogart said.

Total federal spending on cybersecurity is projected to increase from $5.6 billion in 2004, and stay at that level in fiscal 2005, to $5.9 billion in 2006, $6.3 billion in 2007, $6.6 billion in 2008 and $7.1 billion in 2009 ? a 27 percent increase overall.

Planned IT security spending by civilian agencies, excluding the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is projected to increase from $1.4 billion in 2004, to $1.6 billion in 2005 and $1.7 billion in 2006, according to the report. By 2009, the civilian portion will be $1.8 billion, Bogart said.

The nonmilitary federal spending on IT security is increasing at about the same rate as the military spending, Bogart said. "We've seen comparable increases, and that caused us to make a similar assessment," he said.

IT security spending for nonmilitary agencies accounts for about 17 percent of the total civilian agencies' development, modernization and enhancement budgets, Input said. Top civilian agency spenders include the departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Energy and Transportation.