Fortanix Notes Surge in Federal Spending on Cybersecurity

Fortanix, a multi-cloud security company headquartered in Mountain View, California, disclosed that a growing number of federal agencies are turning to its Data Security Manager offering to thwart the increasing number of cybercrime, data breaches and other security challenges posed by nation-state bad actors. The federal government has allocated billions of dollars into cybersecurity to protect classified information and critical infrastructure, Fortanix said Wednesday.

In a statement, the company said that its DSM platform utilizes Confidential Computing to enable federal organizations to protect sensitive data even if the infrastructure is compromised, and helps mitigate future attacks. Its products enable federal agencies to consolidate their disparate and fragmented data security products into one web-scale platform, the company added.

Ambuj Kumar, co-founder and chief executive officer of Fortanix, said President Joe Biden’s executive order directing agencies to take steps to improve the nation’s cybersecurity is prompting federal organizations to re-examine legacy approaches to protecting, encrypting and managing their data. 

Meanwhile, cybersecurity has emerged as a top priority for the Biden administration amid recent cybersecurity events that have shown that adversaries continue to target federal systems. Recognizing that this is a critical issue that must be prioritized, the president’s 2022 budget includes approximately $9.8 billion of budget authority for civilian cybersecurity-related activities. This figure is a 14 percent increase from the estimate reported for 2021, according to a report by the Government Publishing Office.

The same government report said that near-term cybersecurity budgetary priorities will continue to seek the reduction of the risk and impact of cyber incidents, based on data-driven, risk-based assessments of the threat environment and the current federal cybersecurity posture.