Cybersecurity Top Priority For Trump’s NIST Nominee

Walter Copan, a chemist, and president and CEO of Colorado-based Intellectual Property Engineering Group, has been nominated to direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Copan tells science magazine that he views cybersecurity as both national security and economic security, and wants cybersecurity improvements to benefit small companies as well as federal agencies and large corporations. He notes that small companies that suffer cyberattacks generally go out of business less than a year later. The Trump administration has proposed a 24 percent cut for the NIST’s budget for fiscal 2018, and a 13 percent cut for the agency’s seven research labs.