New cyber bill: Cybersecurity and American Cyber Competitiveness Act of 2013 (Washington Post)

Via The Washington Post’s Hayley Tsukayama, the Senate commerce committee has made cybersecurity its priority, introducing the Cybersecurity and American Cyber Competitiveness Act of 2013.

From the bill:

It is the sense of Congress that Congress should enact, and the President should sign, bipartisan legislation  to improve communication and collaboration between the  private sector and the Federal Government to secure the United States against cyber attack, to enhance the competitiveness of the United States and create jobs in the information technology industry, and to protect the identities and sensitive information of United States citizens and businesses by—

(1) enhancing the security and resiliency of public and private communications and information networks against cyber attack by nation-states, terrorists, and cyber criminals;

(2) establishing mechanisms for sharing cyber threat and vulnerability information between the government and the private sector;

(3) developing a coherent public-private system to improve the capability of the United States to assess cyber risk and prevent, detect, and robustly respond to cyber attacks against United States critical infrastructure, such as the electric grid, the financial sector, and telecommunications networks;

(4) promoting research and development investments in the United States information technology sector that create and maintain good, well-paying  jobs in the United States and help to enhance the economic competitiveness and cybersecurity of the United States;

(5) promoting cybersecurity and information technology training to develop the country’s next generation of cyber professionals;

(6) preventing and mitigating identity theft and guarding against abuses or breaches of personally identifiable information;

(7) enhancing United States diplomatic capacity and public-private international cooperation to respond to emerging cyber threats, including promoting security and freedom of access for communications and information networks around the world and battling global cyber crime through focused diplomacy;

(8) expanding tools and resources for investigating and prosecuting cyber crimes in a manner that respects privacy rights and civil liberties and promotes United States innovation; and

(9) maintaining robust protections of the privacy of United States citizens and their online activities and communications.