Commerce gets funds to combat cyber espionage

The Commerce Department is getting an infusion of $10 million for a project to combat cyber espionage--the Cyber Espionage Response Initiative--reports nextgov.com. The money will be used to combat cyber attacks, including efforts by foreign criminals and enemy nations to hack into a computer system that tracks the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction and other dangerous goods.

The funding was included in the 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act signed into law by President Obama on Dec. 16, which allocated more than $100 million for the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security--an entity that regulates the export of sensitive goods and technologies and enforces export control regulations.

The timing for this increased funding is especially important because there have been an increase in cyberattacks on the system, according to government officials. They say that the agency "requires extraordinary IT security measures due to its international trade data with a high security impact, and confirmation as a target by international actors engaging in broad federal level cyber espionage."

For more on the Commerce funding:
- see this nextgov.com article

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