Citing offensive and defensive shortcomings in cyber space, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said yesterday it was looking to boost spending to develop increased capabilities in the cyber domain.
DARPA Director Regina Dugan told a symposium hosted by the agency that the country is not keeping pace with the threat posed by malicious activity in cyber space, and that greater offensive capabilities were needed.
“We need more and better options. We will not prevail by throwing bodies or buildings at the challenges of cyberspace,” Dugan said. “Our assessment argues that we are capability limited, both offensively and defensively. We need to fix that.”
DARPA’s fiscal 2012 budget submission set out $208 million for cyber research–an increase of $88 million–as the agency plans grow its investment over the next five years from 8 percent to 12 percent.
“In the coming years we will focus an increasing portion of our cyber research on the investigation of offensive capabilities to address military-specific needs,” Dugan said at DARPA’s “Colloquium on Future Directions in Cyber Security.”
“DARPA’s role in the creation of the internet means we were party to the intense opportunities it created and share in the intense responsibility of protecting it. Our responsibility is to acknowledge and prepare to protect the nation in this new environment,” she said.
A recent DARPA analysis showed the current U.S. approach, although necessary, does not do enough to meet evolving threats in the cyber domain, she said.
“This is not to suggest that we stop doing what we are doing in cyber security. On the contrary, our existing efforts are necessary,” Dugan said. “These efforts represent the wisdom of the moment. But if we continue only down the current path, we will not converge with the threat.”