Dive Brief:
- Tech executives from different companies and industry groups offered recommendations and best practices the federal government could employ to help avoid another incident like the OPM hack, where 21.5 million American's sensitive personal information was exposed in a data breach.
- Among the top recommendations to the U.S. government: spend more on cyber protection.
- The private sector spends approximately $120 billion every year on cybersecurity. By comparison, the federal government is spending between "$6 billion and $7 billion," according to industry leaders.
Dive Insight:
Industry representatives spoke before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on Friday. The experts collectively urged the federal government to make cybersecurity a bigger priority and to increase the amount of money they are willing to spend on it.
“This is not an IT problem; it’s an economic problem,” said Larry Clinton, chief executive officer at the Internet Security Alliance.
Clinton said the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity budget, for example, is only about 75% of what two leading banks will spend on cybersecurity this year.
“Having continuously subpar cybersecurity in government systems is embarrassing and must stop,” said Barry Loudermilk, chairman of the House science committee’s oversight subcommittee.
Private sector spending on cyber has “doubled in the past few years” to approximately $120 billion annually, according to Loudermilk.
“Cybersecurity is just too important to do on the cheap,” added John Wood, chief executive officer of the Telos Corporation.
