Vice President Mike Pence has urged the Senate to pass before this year ends a measure that would establish a cybersecurity agency within the Department of Homeland Security.
Pence said in his speech delivered Tuesday at DHS National Cybersecurity Summit in New York that the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency will serve as the “central hub for cybersecurity†that will gather the national government’s resources to counter cyber threats.
He said the White House has requested $15 billion in cybersecurity budget for next year and will continue to collaborate with Congress to secure the needed resources for the country’s cyber defense efforts.
Pence offered updates on the National Cyber Strategy, Trump administration’s data sharing efforts with the private sector over threat indicators and the planned expansion of the “national cyber situational awareness room†project to ensure the security of the U.S. midterm elections in November.
He noted that the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee will unveil in the next few weeks a “moonshot†initiative that aims to advance digital and cybersecurity skills.
Other programs Pence mentioned at the summit include the FBI’s foreign influence task force and DHS’ election information sharing analysis center.
“This project, which all 50 states and more than 900 counties have already joined, will help prevent attacks before they happen, identify them when they’re underway and stop them before they can do any lasting damage,†he said of the DHS center.