The Biden administration’s 2025 budget request reflects a strong commitment to cybersecurity, with nearly $13 billion allocated for civilian agencies. This funding aligns with the priorities outlined in the National Cyber Strategy released in March 2023. The budget focuses on both immediate needs and long-term investments.
It includes $470 million for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, which supports zero-trust implementation and enhances federal cybersecurity capabilities. An additional $394 million is requested for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to bolster its internal cybersecurity and analytical capabilities. The budget also emphasizes long-term cybersecurity spending, with $455 million allocated for AI research focusing on safety, security, and resilience.
The Department of Health and Human Services has requested $800 million for cybersecurity at high-need, low-resource hospitals and an additional $500 million for hospitals to advance their cybersecurity capabilities.
Biden’s 2025 budget priorities detailed
A significant theme of the 2023 National Cyber Strategy is redistributing the responsibility for cybersecurity, advocating for “secure by design” and “secure by default” principles.
The federal government will play a crucial role in encouraging IT providers to adopt these practices by directing funds to contracts that reward adherence to secure by design principles. The public and private sectors are exploring the use of Generative AI (GenAI) in cybersecurity, with security remaining a major concern. Creating a shared model for GenAI security, akin to the shared computing model in cloud services, could be accelerated by federal guidelines ensuring comprehensive security requirements.
Cybersecurity is critical to everything from massive infrastructure projects to the operations of small businesses and the private lives of Americans. The federal government plays a leading role in law enforcement and creating cybersecurity frameworks, while the private sector develops cybersecurity capabilities. The 2025 federal budget request reflects the government’s commitment to these priorities, emphasizing both immediate and long-term cybersecurity needs and ensuring that secure by design principles become standard practice in IT development.
