Critical Cuts to US Cyber Standards Agency Leaves Us Vulnerable

According to recent reports, the Trump Administration’s new fiscal 2019 funding plan includes cuts to the National Institute of Standards and Technology – a group that oversees measurement standards, including those in the cybersecurity field.

Shiu-Kai Chin is an electrical engineering and computer science professor at Syracuse University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. Chin says the strategy of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” to address cybersecurity funding leaves us vulnerable as a nation.

Chin says:

“We’re all in the same boat when it comes to cybersecurity. The apparent strategy of robbing Peter to pay Paul still leaves us vulnerable as a nation. The fact is that much of the nation’s critical infrastructure, much of which depends on the correct operations of computers embedded in that infrastructure, lies outside the government, i.e., power, telecommunications, financial services, and transportation.

“The National Institute of Standards and Technology plays a crucial role in setting the bar for what’s good security practice, how to assess security, and how to implement computer security. NIST is working hard to address the root causes of our national cyber vulnerabilities by providing guidance on how to build trustworthy systems by building security into systems from initial conception through deployment.

“You cannot build a house on half a foundation. Cutting NIST is short sighted.”

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