OMB sets cyber priorities for fiscal 2024 ahead of agency budget submissions

The Office of Management Budget and Office of the National Cyber Director issued a memo Friday setting the administration’s cybersecurity priorities for fiscal year 2024 as agencies prepare to submit budget requests to the White House this fall.

In fiscal 2024, executive agencies will be held to investing in a trio of cyber priorities: improving the defense and resilience of government networks by focusing on zero trust implementation and IT modernization; deepening cross-sector collaboration to defend critical infrastructure; and “strengthening the foundations of our digitally-enabled future.”

In addition to seeking adequate funding to support this work, OMB and ONCD will jointly “review agency responses to these priorities, identify potential gaps, and potential solutions to those gaps,” says the memo, signed by OMB Director Shalanda Young and National Cyber Director Chris Inglis.

“OMB, in coordination with ONCD, will provide feedback to agencies on whether the priorities are adequately addressed and consistent with the overall cybersecurity strategy and policy—aiding agencies’ multiyear planning through the regular budget process,” the memo says.

Much of the memo, however, is a rehash from earlier strategy documents and executive orders this administration or others have issued previously — such as pushing for the “accelerated adoption and use of secure cloud infrastructure and services, leveraging zero trust architecture,” and “exploring, as appropriate and within the bounds of their statutory authorities, alternative skills-based hiring and pay incentive practices to ensure skilled talent has access to opportunities in the IT and cyber workforce.”