For FFY 2021 there was a national priority requirement to allocate 7% of the grant funds received towards cybersecurity purposes. We only need to look at cyber-events in the last few months with the Colonial Pipeline and then the meat packing ransomware attacks grabbing national headlines to know what will happen in FFY2022 grant guidance.
These grant programs are highly reactive to disasters and other events. I would expect that that today's 7% dedicated funding for cyber will at a minimum go up to 10% for the next grant go-around. We also know that the "sustainment" portion of funding that has been allowed will continue to diminish—so there will be a way to fund the increase in cybersecurity funding.
The other issue I've observed is that emergency managers are not dialed into cybersecurity. Thus, when it comes time to allocate funds towards that purpose there can be a dearth of proposed projects to take advantage of the funding opportunity.
