House Bill Slashes Research Critical To Cybersecurity

dcblogs writes: A U.S. House bill that will set the nation's basic research agenda for the next two years increases funding for computer science, but at the expense of other research areas. The funding bill, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chair of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, hikes funding for computer science, but cuts — almost by half — social sciences funding, which includes the study of human behavior. Cybersecurity uses human behavior research because humans are often the weakest security link. Research funding social, behavioral and economic sciences will fall from $272 million to $150 million, a 45% decrease. The bill also takes a big cut out of geosciences research, which includes climate change study, from $1.3 billion to $1.2 billion, an 8% decrease. The insight into human behaviors that comes from the social science research, "is critical to understanding how best to design and implement hardware and software systems that are more secure and easier to use," wrote J. Strother Moore, the Computing Research Association chair and a professor of computer science at the University of Texas.

Comments

Re:well, why wouldn't they?

[Lead Butthead]

keep in mind this loop is a tea bagger.

Re:No cuts are ever possible

[ckatko]

Why don't we cut a couple hundred billion out of the multi-trillion dollar "war on everything" Military–industrial complex that's obviously going so well?

Fun-fact: We used to look at the Vietnam War as obviously fruitless and a waste of money and lives. Yet we've been in Afghanistan since 2001.

Re:Lamar Smith, Christian Scientist

[PopeRatzo]

Yeah, and you won't find many conservatives who believe that

Just the ones who get elected.