DoD Cyber Crime Conference A Victim Of Sequester

Application Security

As the U.S. federal budget 'sequester' approaches, annual conference to be sponsored by the Department of Defense is canceled due to budget uncertainty

Larry Seltzer, Contributor

February 4, 2013

1 Min Read

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has canceled its planned Cyber Crime Conference 2013.

The DoD cites budgetary uncertainties:

"Based on DoD's budgetary uncertainty, The Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) has been given direction to reduce the government expenditure rate. Therefore, DC3 and Technology Forums have reluctantly come to the decision that we will not be holding our annual DoD Cyber Crime Conference in 2013. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate everyone's efforts and support."

The direction to which the notice refers is likely the approaching federal budget "sequester," a series of automatic spending cuts set to trigger on March 1. The cuts would total $1.2 trillion, half of which come from security programs of which the Department of Defense is a part.

On NBC News' "Meet The Press" yesterday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that if Congress allows the sequestration to take place, it "would really be a shameful and irresponsible act."