The Department of Homeland Security‘s Science and Technology Directorate has partnered with its Dutch counterparts to provide up to $2.5M for cybersecurity research and development efforts, the DHS said Friday.

Five U.S.-Netherlands research teams will work on projects addressing Distributed Denial of Defense Security and Industrial Controls Systems Security issues. The work will build on previous cyber research under the two countries’ collaborative agreement.

“The capabilities developed by the joint research teams will benefit both countries today and into the future. We hope this is the first of many joint ventures with our international partners,” said William Bryan, DHS senior official for the Under Secretary for Science and Technology.

In May 2017, DHS S&T and two organizations under the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security began seeking participants for the cybersecurity R&D program. The directorate allocated $1.25M for the effort while the Netherlands’ Organization for Scientific Research and National Cyber Security Center provided the equivalent amount in euros.

The five teams are:\n

• New York University and Delft University of Technology
• University of Southern California – Information Sciences Institute and University of Twente
• University of California and University of Twente
• University of Texas and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
• University of California and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently underscored the importance of having sufficient defense funding when it comes to maintaining the competitive advantage of the U.S.

Speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum over the weekend, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford expressed confidence in the military’s ability to defend the country against potential adversaries, the Defense Department reported Saturday.

Dunford noted, however, that the lack of “sustained predictable, adequate levels of funding” combined with a failure to “look carefully at those areas where we are challenged” would likely erode such confidence in the coming years.

His remarks come as the Defense Department prepares a $700B alternative budget proposal for 2020 to meet President Trump’s call for spending cuts across federal agencies. The revised DoD proposal is $33B lower than an earlier department draft.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has said a reduced budget would restrain some of the Pentagon’s objectives, Federal News Network reported Friday.

He told reporters Thursday that the Defense Department completed the proposed $733B budget and has now begun to draft the $700B spending plan after President Donald Trump ordered a 5 percent budget cut.

“What I want the president to understand when we bring the $700B budget forward is: What are those tradeoffs?” Shanahan said.

“I either get reduced capacity, I get lower quantities of procurement, I change modernization, my reforms are certain size. He really needs an awareness of what that translates to in terms of performance here in the department.”

Shanahan noted that DoD plans to have Defense Secretary James Mattis, the comptroller and the office of cost assessment and program evaluation review the new budget before handing over the findings to the president after Thanksgiving.    
 

President Donald Trump has signed into law a bill that would form a new cybersecurity agency within the Department of Homeland Security.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act will create a new DHS agency that will “lead the federal government’s civilian response to these cyber threats against our nation,” Trump said in a statement published Friday.

The CISA Act aims to restructure DHS’ national protection and programs directorate into a new government organization composed of three divisions: critical infrastructure, emergency communications and cybersecurity, according to GovTrack.

Trump noted that CISA will work with other government agencies and the private sector to defend U.S. power grids, telecommunications, banks and other infrastructure from cyber threat actors.

The House approved the CISA Act on Tuesday a month after the Senate passed the measure.

Recently, Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told the press that the Defense Department is preparing a $700B budget proposal in addition to a $733B draft that has already been prepared, in line with President Trump’s earlier call for spending cuts, the Washington Examiner reported Thursday.

In October, President Trump instructed his cabinet secretaries to reduce their upcoming budget proposals by 5 percent, indicating that “[we] know what the new budget is for the Defense Department; it will probably be $700 billion.”

Shanahan explained, however, that a “smaller” defense budget is already being prepared.

The DoD official said he wanted to ensure that the president is well-informed of the trade-offs that would have to be made should a $700B defense budget be enacted.

President Trump needs to have “an awareness of what that number really translates to in terms of performance here for the department,” Shanahan stated.