On behalf of Federal agencies and the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Cyber Security and Information Assurance Interagency Working Group, the National Coordination Office (NCO) for NITRD just published a request for information on the 2023 Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan.
Pursuant to the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014, Federal agencies must update the Federal cybersecurity research and development (R&D) strategic plan every four years. The NITRD NCO seeks public input for the 2023 update of the Federal cybersecurity R&D strategic plan. The updated plan will be used to guide and coordinate federally funded research in cybersecurity, including cybersecurity education and workforce development, and the development of consensus-based standards and best practices in cybersecurity.
The most recent version of the strategic plan was released in December 2019 and can be found here. Responders should consider a 10-year time frame when characterizing the challenges, prospective research activities, and desired outcomes. Responders are asked to answer one or more of the following questions:
1. What new innovations have the potential to greatly enhance the security, reliability, resiliency, trustworthiness, and privacy protections of the digital ecosystem (including but not limited to data, computing, networks, cyber-physical systems, and participating entities such as people and organizations)?
2. Are there mature solutions in the marketplace that address the deficiencies raised in the 2019 Strategic Plan? What areas of research or topics of the 2019 Strategic Plan no longer need to be prioritized for federally funded basic and applied research?
3. What areas of research or topics of the 2019 Strategic Plan should continue to be a priority for federally funded research and require continued Federal R&D investments?
4. What objectives not included in the 2019 Strategic Plan should be strategic priorities for federally funded R&D in cybersecurity? Discuss the challenges, desired capabilities and outcomes, and objectives that should guide research to achieve the desired capabilities, and why those capabilities and outcomes should be strategic priorities for federally funded R&D.
5. What other scientific, technological, economic, legal, or societal changes and developments occurring now or in the foreseeable future have the potential to significantly disrupt our abilities to secure the digital ecosystem and make it resilient? Discuss what federally funded R&D could improve the understanding of such developments and improve the capabilities needed to mitigate against such disruptions.
6. What further advancements to cybersecurity education and workforce development, at all levels of education, should be considered to prepare students, faculty, and the workforce in the next decade for emerging cybersecurity challenges, such as the implications of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and the Internet of Things on cybersecurity?
7. What other research and development strategies, plans, or activities, domestic or in other countries, should inform the U.S. Federal cybersecurity R&D strategic plan?
Submissions are due before 11:59 p.m. (ET) on March 3, 2023. For more information on how to submit and what to include in your response, check out the original posting here.
