**** CRA/USACM JOINT
MEDIA RELEASE ****
CRA Contact: Peter Harsha, 202-478-6135, harsha@cra.org
USACM Contact: Jeff Grove, 202-478-6312, jeff_grove@acm.org
COMPUTING LEADERS COMMEND PASSAGE OF CYBER SECURITY R&D
ACT
CRA and USACM Cite Research Opportunities to Support
Nation’s Technology Infrastructure
Statement of Dr. James D. Foley, Chairman of CRA:
“Our Nation has never been more at risk from a cyber attack
on our critical information infrastructure than now. As stated in the joint CRA
and USACM testimony before the Science Committee in October of last year, the
continuing growth of malicious software, system attacks, and cyber crime cause
estimated losses in the tens of billions of dollars a year. A significant part
of addressing this risk will require a commitment to supporting long-term,
basic computer security research. CRA is pleased that the programs authorized
by this legislation will help respond to this challenge by creating new
opportunities at the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of
Standards and Technology and new opportunities to improve the supply of
graduate students and faculty pursuing computer security research. We believe
this represents the right approach and look forward to seeing it earn the
President’s signature.”
Statement of
“To advance the
collective knowledge base of information security, we need a significant,
prolonged investment by government and industry in building up our research
infrastructure, educational resources, and personnel base in information
assurance. This requires funding both
individual researchers and centers, and including sufficient resources to
enable significant basic research. When
funded, H.R. 3394 will provide a dependable source of revenue for the explicit
purpose of improving the nation's technology infrastructure. This long-term commitment is welcomed as it
will enable research to develop new systems that are more resistant to attack
and to better address the challenges of tomorrow.”
CRA’s Dr. Foley and USACM’s Dr.
Spafford jointly expressed their gratitude to Congressional leaders. “On behalf
of the computing community, we wish to thank House Science Committee Chairman
Sherwood Boehlert and Ranking Member Ralph Hall, and Senators Ron Wyden and
George Allen of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee for
their leadership, their long-standing support of IT research, and their
willingness to confront the challenges of cyber security by shepherding H.R.
3394 through Congress.”
-more-
CRA is an organization of 200 of the Nation’s leading
industrial computing research labs and university computer
science departments. Dr. Spafford’s CRA/USACM testimony can be found online at the CRA Government Affairs web page:
http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/
USACM is the U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association
for Computing Machinery (ACM), a leading computing society committed to the
open interchange of information concerning computing and related disciplines. For more information, please visit the USACM
web site at: http://www.acm.org/usacm.
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