Data Crunch: Cyber spending

In the proposed FY19 budget the White House recently sent to Congress, an item in the Department of Defense’s section stands out: $8.6 billion to spend next year on cybersecurity. This is quite a lot compared to other NATO countries. In 2016, GCHQ in the UK pledged £1.9 billion over five years on developing a cyber strategy, and a report issued by the Potomac Institute indicated that German spending over the same timeframe was only €160 million. While it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the $686.1 billion proposed for the total defense budget, the DoD’s cyber strategy is important to gaining supremacy on future battlefields.