How much money does Denmark spend on cyber defense, compared to the U.S? In total and per citizen. This is what I'll look at in this post. I'll also try to get an initial idea of what is going on. Why am I doing this? Actually, just out of curiosity, and to kill some time before I have my hair cut.
Picking up the paper-paper (Politiken) this morning I read a short opinion-piece about the intelligence branch of the danish armed forced (FE: Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste), and in particular the new Center for Cybersecurity. The concern is that this new center is going to spy on ordinary Danish citizens (NSA-style). It made me curious, and I decided to investigate for myself.
In 2011 the center was established, with a fairly modest annual budget of 35 million DKK a year (out of a 90 million DKK budget in 2014 for cyber efforts by the Danish Ministry of Defense; increased to 150 million DKK in 2016). This is a modest budget, given the amount of money truly skilled IT-professionals charge an hour and what IT equipment costs in general, but also compared to what other institutions in Denmark receive. For example the Danish Geodata Agency, which I've had the great pleasure of working for, has annual budget of more than 200 million DKK.
So 90 million DKK for cyber defense versus 200 million DKK for geographical data (2014).
In the United States, the Defense Department allocates $4.7 billion on the annual budget for "cyber efforts". Making the currency conversion, that is 25 billion DKK versus 90 million DKK, a ration of 277:1.
Red square is Danish budget, blue square is U.S. budget:
The population of the United States is 313 million people. The population ratio between the U.S. and Denmark is approximately 62:1. The United States thus spends roughly 4.5 times more money per capita on cyber efforts than Denmark.
Dollars spent on cyber efforts per person in the U.S and in Denmark:
When trying to understand the motivation for national cyber efforts, Danish independent media seems to focus on the threat posed by industrial espionage (from abroad?) against Danish companies (1, 2, 3). This is surely a real threat, and should be a primary mission IMO.
The stated mission of the center, as described on the homepage for the center, is a bit more vague. It goes something like this:
Styrke Danmarks modstandsdygtighed mod trusler rettet mod samfundsvigtig informations- og kommunikationsteknologi (ikt); Sikre forudsætningerne for en robust ikt-infrastruktur i Danmark; Varsle om og imødegå cyberangreb med henblik på at styrke beskyttelsen af danske interesser.
I'm not really sure what that means concretely. What the paper-paper (Politiken) is concerned about is that the center is going to spy on Danish and foreign citizens. Given the modest annual budget and the usual burn-rate in public administration, I think this is going to be a rather weak threat to our privacy. Another question is, what should the primary mission of the center be, and how should that mission be accomplished? In any event, 90 million DKK do not go a long way towards anything. That being said, I'd certainly curious about what the money IS spent on. If I learn, I'm not sure I'll post it on my personal blog, so don't hold your breath.
This was primarily a way to pass some time before I have my hair cut (in five minutes).