February 15, 2000

Fact Sheet

                              THE WHITE HOUSE

                       Office of the Press Secretary
          _______________________________________________________
          For Immediate Release                 February 15, 2000

                                Fact Sheet

                     Cyber Security Budget Initiatives

The Clinton Administration continues its aggressive support for protecting
our critical infrastructures through the budget process.  President Clinton
has increased funding on critical infrastructure substantially over the
past three years, including a 15% increase in the FY2000 request of $2.0
billion over last year?s $1.75 billion appropriation.  This includes an
increase from $451 million to $606 million in funding for research and
development.  The President has also developed and funded new initiatives
to defend the nation's computer systems from malicious cyber activity. The
Administration has developed and provided full or pilot funding for the
following key initiatives designed to protect the federal government's
computer systems:

?    Establishing a Federal Cyber Services Training and Education
initiative led by OPM and NSF, which will fund a Bachelor?s or
Master?s-level education in information security in exchange for a
commitment to enter federal service; and a program to establish
competencies and certify our existing IT workforce. ($25 million)

?    Establishing a permanent Expert Review Team (ERT) at the Commerce
Department's NIST that will help agencies conduct vulnerability analyses
and develop CIP plans.  ($5 million)

?    Designing a Federal Intrusion Detection Network (FIDNET) to protect
vital systems in Federal civilian agencies, and to ensure the rapid
implementation of system "patches" for known software defects. ($10
million)

?    Funding 7 Public Key Infrastructure Models pilot programs in FY2001 at
different federal agencies. ($7 million)

?    Expanding Federal research and development investments in computer
security by more then 32% in the FY2001 budget.
($606 million)

?    Establishing an Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection
that will combine federal and private efforts to fill key gaps in critical
infrastructure research and development. ($50 million)

In addition, the President announced that he has requested a $9 million
supplemental appropriation for FY2000 to jump-start several of these
important cyber programs before the start of the new fiscal year.  This
will fund:

?    $4 million to establish the Institute for               Information
Infrastructure Protection;
?    $2 million for the FIDNET Joint Program Office;
?    $2 million for the Federal Cyber Service programs;      and
?    $1 million for the establishment of an Expert Review    Team at NIST.